Puppet AU: Recovery
by FourthWallBreaker
Summary: The Pines have been rescued, but there is a chance this will not last. With one year until Cipher breaks the barriers between dimensions, this doesn't give their new caretakers much time to help them recover their sense of self. Hopefully, they'll manage to succeed and do something about Cipher before that year is up.
1. New Masters

**All right.**

 **Before we begin: UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES ONE YEAR IS NOT ENOUGH TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO RECOVER FROM 600 YEARS OF TRAUMA. THAT SHORT OF AN AMOUNT OF TIME IS STUPIDLY SHORT AND THE** **REPERCUSSIONS OF PUSHING SOMEONE THAT FAR ARE FAR TOO GREAT. THAT SAID, I AM TAKING NARRATIVE CONTROL TO HAVE THAT TAKE PLACE. DO NOT THINK I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THERAPY BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENS IN THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS. THAT'S STUPID. I AM AN ENGLISH MAJOR WHO KNOWS VERY LITTLE ABOUT HOW PSYCHIATRISTS OPERATE.**

 **DO NOT MIMIC WHAT I AM DOING HERE.**

 **And now, with that out of the way...**

 **Chapter 1 – New Masters**

 _"_ _Ford?"_

Ford opened his eyes.

He was met with the slightly-frowning, blue-eyed gaze of a brown-haired young woman, with gray hair at her temples, kneeling on the ground in front of him.

"You okay?"

The girl moved back a little as Ford quietly pushed himself up into a kneeling position. His hands rested on his knees. "I am fine, Guildmaster."

He kept his voice quiet as the Guildmaster's brow furrowed. Something about the look on her face seemed familiar, vaguely, but after having been under the Mas—

-No, under _Cipher_ _'_ _s_ –

-control over the last six centuries, he'd…forgotten, that people could look like that.

In fact, he'd forgotten that he could be…could be disconnected from Cipher at all.

The Guildmaster turned her head and looked around the clearing as the others started moving – Stan pushing himself up into a sitting position and rubbing his head with a scowl on his face as his counterpart did the same. Stan's counterpart looked at the suit Stan was wearing – covered in bright colors that seared the eye and made him look sleezy in some form – and winced back.

"Yeah, we're burnin' that," Stan's counterpart rose to his feet and offered Stan a hand. "Hope ya don't mind."

Stan blinked, looking surprised, then shrugged as his expression became more neutral and took the offered hand. His counterpart pulled him to his feet. "If that's what you plan ta do with it, it's yer choice."

Across the clearing – and the circle burned into the grass – a sphinx-like Ford with multicolored wings sat back on his hind legs as Mabel looked around, rubbing tears away from her eyes as butterfly-like, translucent pink fairy wings shimmered in the sunlight. Her hair also shimmered with caught starlight, but less so.

Right. Ford was going to have to get used to proper sunlight again, too.

Dipper clung to a teenage Mabel's pink sweater as she sat near the sphinx and Mabel. She had one arm wrapped around his shoulders as Dipper rubbed at his own face. The branch-like antlers on his head nearly brushed against Mabel's counterpart's face, but she was able to lean back and avoid getting hit by them.

The Guildmaster sighed, then rose to her feet and held out her hand to Ford, who blinked at it blankly before taking it in his and rising to his feet as the Guildmaster pulled him up.

"Okay." The Guildmaster turned and looked at the rest of the group, looking at each person in turn. "You guys got them, too?"

"Weird way to word it," Stan's counterpart muttered. He leaned to one side and frowned at Ford. "You get the same story from him?"

"About the fact that he's missing his will? Yeah." The Guildmaster's tone was grim. "And you guys?"

Ford's counterpart and Mabel's counterpart nodded as Dipper and Mabel looked up at her with cautious expressions.

The Guildmaster sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're all making me wish I'd physically punched that demon instead of just blasting him with a White Flare." Her hand dropped from her face; she shook her head before looking back at Ford. "For what reason did you guys end up in this dimension?"

"He sent us," Ford replied, "with the intent of preparing this dimension for his coming."

He had a new master now, and that meant any rules held over him before no longer applied. If the Guildmaster wanted him to speak of things the Mas – Cipher would have wanted secret, he would do so.

The Guildmaster's gaze sharpened, and Ford found himself on the end of a glare that did not hide any of the Guildmaster's anger. "So he got a little greedy and decided to branch out after taking your dimension? Is that it?"

Ford nodded quickly. "Yes, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster growled and turned to look away from Ford. "Well, _this_ day just keeps getting better and better."

She looked down at the circle that had been burned into the ground, with the Mas – Cipher's symbol in the middle and the changed Zodiac symbols running around the edge: the pine tree, coated in vines; the shooting star, its trail looking more warped; the crescent fish, covered in eyes; and Ford's six-fingered hand, with a pinwheel of six fox tails behind it, matching the number that he himself had.

The Guildmaster lifted a foot, and Ford watched as she slammed it down on top of Cipher's eye and slid her foot over the symbol, destroying it.

"He already knows that we've rescued you from his control," the Guildmaster said, turning to look at the others. "Although, I don't think that's quite the right word _yet,_ since you're not free."

Ford blinked. _Rescue?_ Had that been the Guildmaster's intent?

But freedom - that was impossible. Without what had been taken from them….

Ford doubted that the Guildmaster would be treating him any differently than Cipher had when she found out how impossible it was to return what they'd lost.

He turned his gaze away from the Guildmaster as she looked over at him.

"Hey, Ford, you mind taking that coat off?"

Ford's fox ears twitched, and he looked over at the Guildmaster with a confused expression.

"Your coat," the Guildmaster repeated. "It's got Cipher on the back of it. Where we're going, you probably shouldn't be wearing that."

Ah.

Ford nodded a little and slipped out of the black trench coat. When the Guildmaster motioned for him to hand it over to her, he did so.

"Okay, this thing should be flammable now that you aren't wearing it." The Guildmaster dropped the bundle of fabric over where Cipher's symbol had been on the ground, then summoned a red-orange fireball onto the palm of her right hand.

Ford blinked. So that's how she had been able to absorb his fire before – she was equipped with fire magic as well.

"Hang on, kiddo," Stan's counterpart spoke up. "I wanna get this guy's suit burned too, and we don't exactly have anything else for him to change into at the moment in case you haven't noticed."

The Guildmaster paused, then nodded and crushed the fireball in her bare hand, not so much as flinching. "Yeah, that sounds like a better idea." She picked up the bundle of coat again and made sure that there was no yellow visible before tucking it under her arm.

Ford blinked. He'd expected her to hand it back to him to carry.

"Alcor went back," Mabel's counterpart spoke up. "I think he's going to warn everybody else about what just happened so that nobody points a gun in our face when we get back."

"That bad of a reputation, huh?" The Guildmaster sighed as Mabel's counterpart nodded. "Thanks for the heads-up, Mizar."

Mabel's counterpart – Mizar – gave the Guildmaster a thumbs-up, then looked down at Dipper. "Come on, Dipdop. Let's head back to the Shack – one of them, anyway. We can explain what's going on on the way."

Dipper nodded. "Okay." His voice was quiet.

Ford's sphinx counterpart got down on all fours and motioned for Mabel to climb onto his back. "Come along, my dear. I'd rather not exhaust you more than you probably have been already."

Mabel scrambled up onto his back, avoiding his wings with a gentle care. She sniffled a little as she lay on Sphinx's back, wings up, but she didn't sound like she was going to be bursting into tears anytime soon.

Sphinx adjusted his wings around her as the Guildmaster breathed in deeply. Then she started walking out of the clearing.

Ford immediately fell into step behind her as Sphinx moved to walk next to her.

"So, I don't know the full story myself, but four different versions of Gravity Falls got merged together in this one dimension," the Guildmaster said. "I got here about fifteen minutes ago, helping a Stan _and_ a Ford back to their dimension." She looked back at the rest of the group. "They got sucked into the portal together."

Ford blinked. She was not from _this_ Gravity Falls?

"If you guys have any questions, I'm not against answering them," the Guildmaster added. "I'm Maria. I'm not related to the Pines and I'm not a native to any Gravity Falls." She gave a small smile, then returned her attention to where she was going. "Anyway, it's apparently August in this dimension."

Right. Ford was going to have to get used to the passage of time again.

"Is, not apparently," Sphinx corrected. "And our dimensions have been merged together like this for the entirety of the summer."

Dimensions merged together? Mas – Cipher had said that he had prepared something….

"If that's the case, then I think Cipher's missing his chance to get in and wreak havoc," the Guildmaster commented.

Mabel made a small noise.

Sphinx turned his head to look at her; Ford expected him to tell her to shut up. "What is it, my dear?"

Ford blinked. That…was not the reaction he had been expecting.

"Mas – H-He said the wait was gonna be a y-year this time." Mabel's voice wavered as she spoke.

The Guildmaster stiffened. "I'm gonna kill him."

Sphinx looked at her sharply. "Maria—"

"He _enslaved_ them for _five hundred and forty years at least,_ if he didn't decide to wait a hundred years _after_ taking them to let Ford's tails start to split!" The Guildmaster motioned sharply back to Ford. "Considering the state they're in, the more I learn the more I feel my anger going up! First Ford's not like himself, then this – this forced connection, then the fact that Mabel nearly called Cipher _Master!_ GAH!" She tugged at her hair with one hand. "If I see _anything_ that's yellow and has three sides ever _again_ he's not just getting a 100 percent – he's getting 150! _And_ every last ally I've made in the multiverse _on top of that!"_

The forest felt…unusually quiet after the Guildmaster's rant. Ford's ears were pressed down against his head from the volume of it. He watched her cautiously as she caught her breath.

"So, yeah," the Guildmaster said. "That's what's going through my head right now. I'm not mad at any of you, I'm mad at the triangle. Burning this –" She held up Ford's coat "—will help me get some anger burned off. Before that, though, we have to get you guys settled in." She moved the coat back under her arm and added, "And nicknames, too – to tell you apart from your counterparts."

Ford's head was whirling. The Guildmaster was throwing curveballs he wasn't expecting.

Not mad at _them?_ But they were heralding Cipher's coming with their presence alone.

 _Threatening_ the demon? Even after knowing what had happened to him?

Stan shifted a little behind him and asked something under his breath. "Mind if I say what that demon called us?"

"If it'll help us narrow down things, sure," his counterpart replied.

Stan grunted, then raised his voice. " _He_ called us Fez, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, and Fordsy."

The Guildmaster gagged _immediately._ "Scrap no. _Scrap. No._ I am _not_ calling your brother that. I _knew_ he went for the Zodiac symbols but _that_ _'_ _s_ where I'm drawing the line! Primus above and below, just…just _no._ " She looked back at Ford, looking like she'd just swallowed something terrible. "Is it okay if you go by Sixer instead? For now?"

Ford bowed his head. "If that's what you wish, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster winced at his answer, but, after a moment, she nodded. "Okay. Sixer it is. That doesn't mean your name is _permanently_ Sixer; we just need code names to tell you and your four other counterparts apart when we're trying to get a specific person's attention. You might still get addressed as Ford sometimes though, okay?"

Sixer nodded quietly.

"You got any ideas?" Stan's counterpart asked him.

Stan shrugged. "What do you want me to say? We've been stuck for who knows how long; I can't just start…doin' what you can do right off the bat. I can _pretend_ I got ideas, but I can't guarantee you're gonna like 'em."

"Stan being called Fez doesn't make any sense," Sphinx muttered, getting the Guildmaster's attention. "Stan, your symbol is _on_ the fez, not the fez itself. And it seems you no longer own that. The crescent fish is what your symbol is usually called, but I've heard other suggestions."

"So…Moon? Crescent?" Stan's counterpart looked at him.

Stan shrugged. "Whatever you feel like."

Stan's counterpart frowned and poked him in the chest. "Choose. One. Aesthetic, gut choice, I don't _care,_ but _you_ choose your own nickname. Think it over."

Stan looked surprised at that.

Sixer's confusion was only increasing. Leaving the decision to…? It didn't seem right.

"Hey, Grunkle Sphinx, would it be okay if Mabel, Dipper, and I brainstormed for their nicknames?" Mizar spoke up.

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Sphinx replied. "I think it might be a good idea if I was somewhere nearby, however – just in case something might happen."

"Sure! Maybe you'd be able to help, too!"

Sphinx chuckled nervously. "Well, I'll…I'll see what I can do."

Sixer's gaze moved back to his coat, bundled under the Guildmaster's arm, as she tightened her grip on it. The stiffness in her shoulders and the way she was walking suggested that she was still angered.

Sixer knew there was a likelihood that the Guildmaster would be taking that anger out on him. M—Cipher had done it before. When he wasn't doing…other activities, or waiting for orders, that was usually what happened to him.

However…the Guildmaster wasn't _identical_ to Cipher in temperament. That meant that she would do things differently.

He would have to be prepared for that.

The Guildmaster murmured something, causing Sixer's ears to flick forward.

"…set things right. We have to."

Sixer blinked at that. Set things right? What was the Guildmaster talking about?

Well, whatever it meant, he was sure that he would end up being given a part to play.


	2. Settling In

**Thanks to kat151820 and star the rebel for the Favs and Follows!**

 **Northgalus2002 - Yup! Out Puppet Pines are gonna get the TLC they need here - whether or not they're receptive to it is going to take a bit. As for counterparts...there's a lot more in this dimension than just these guys, that's for sure!**

 **As for the rest of the zodiac, they'll pop in from time to time, no worries. The counterparts, at least - we'll get to the ones in the Fearamid eventually, but since they're stuck as tapestries, I don't think they're gonna be physically capable of escaping anytime soon.**

 **Chapter 2 - Settling In**

The Guildmaster, Mizar, Sphinx, and Stanley filled them in on the other members of the Pines family in this dimension before they reached the clearing that contained four Mystery Shacks.

Stanley, Stanford, Mabel, and Dipper were from what the Guildmaster called "the Classic universe."

Mizar, her brother Alcor, and their grunkles Journal and Andrew were of a dimension that the Guildmaster referred to as "Transcendence and Demon Stans," only for Mizar to suggest "Demon Trio AU" instead, which the Guildmaster agreed to.

Sphinx, Gargrunkle, Deerper, and Mabelcorn were from what the Guildmaster called "Monster Falls," which…considering Sphinx's appearance, seemed most apt.

And the only group that didn't have any family members present – Stan, Ford, Tyrone, and Maple – were from a multiversal branch the Guildmaster called "Portal Stans." She added that the specific title of their timeline was not to be named in their presence on account to what happened to Stan and Ford while they were together on the other side of the portal.

Sixer made a point to keep this all in his head, mulling over the information given. The Guildmaster might require it of him later.

"Here we are." The Guildmaster stepped out of the forest and into the clearing, the rest spilling out at the same time. She came to a stop a few feet away from the clearing.

Sixer stopped with her, keeping his head bowed slightly as he stood behind her.

There was a crunch of grass under boots as someone approached them.

"Maria, you do realize that you have a counterpart of mine who is _known for taking Fords to Cipher_ right behind you?" a Ford asked curtly.

"I didn't know about _that_ bit," the Guildmaster replied. "But you don't have to worry about that. Sixer's not with Cipher anymore."

"How can you be certain?"

"I jumped into his mindscape, Stanford." The Guildmaster motioned back to Sixer. "Cipher was controlling him using a connection between the two of them. I took that connection, and in the process found out something. Cipher _took his free will._ Everything that you've heard about him doing or involved in, _he didn_ _'_ _t want to do but had no choice."_

"What? No, that – you can't take the _free will_ of a living creature, that would kill them!"

"That explains the connection a little more, actually." The Guildmaster looked back at Sixer; he noticed her gaze and looked away. "That's why your mindscape went gray when Cipher was forced to let go of the chains. You were dying then, weren't you?"

Sixer considered that for a moment, then nodded a little. "Yes, Guildmaster."

Stanford sucked in a breath sharply.

"Yeah," the Guildmaster said flatly, looking back at Stanford. "I gave him the option of using my real name, but he didn't follow through on it. _That,_ plus he's been stuck for 540 to 600 _years?_ _Not_ taking into account the fact that time has probably been _warping_ around him in the remains of his dimension?"

Stanford went silent for a moment. "…I see. I'd never realized – a lot of us suspected that he was serving him willingly."

"Which explains why no one _else_ has broken Cipher's hold on him before now." The Guildmaster took in a shaky breath and ran a hand down her face. "I need to spend some time thinking this over because I've got _bad_ thoughts trying to get out of my mind. I'm planning on burning this—" She adjusted her hold on Sixer's coat "—and Stan's suit later. Or Crescent or Moon or whatever he decides to go by, whether Stanley prods him or not."

"Stanley rescued his _own_ counterpart?" Stanford asked. "Are you sure that was a—"

"Sixer's got fire magic, and I can absorb it. No way was I going to let the others go after him when there was a chance of them getting burned."

Sixer's ear twitched at the tone in the Guildmaster's voice. She sounded annoyed, but there was something…else, too. He wasn't sure what he was hearing.

"Pardon, but…fire magic? How does that—"

"Sixer?" the Guildmaster prompted.

Sixer raised his head as he raised a hand, and it instantly became coated in flames, causing his counterpart to step back quickly, eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"I…I was not expecting that," Stanford said.

The Guildmaster reached over and absorbed the flames by gripping Sixer's hand for a moment. He let his hand drop. "He's like a Vulpix; they're fire-type Pokémon that look like…six-tailed kitsune kits. I ran around as one for a little while early in my travels. Kinda miss it, actually."

 _Vulpix?_

Sixer remembered – vaguely – that Cipher had based his transformation _on_ that very creature. It seemed that the Guildmaster knew about them, too.

The thought stirred…something…at the back of his mind – memories? Or something else?

The Guildmaster seemed to notice. "Got something on your mind, Sixer?"

Sixer blinked at the sudden question and looked at her. "I…have met Vulpix before, Guildmaster."

"You have?" The Guildmaster's eyebrows rose. "When? Before all this happened, I hope."

Sixer nodded as more memories came forward – hazy, for the most part, but still clear enough that he could remember the important details. "It was when I was traveling, yes."

"How did you manage to meet one?"

"I…became one, for a while. The portal through which I arrived on that world transformed me temporarily. Another Vulpix assisted me in returning to human form, as she was in the same situation."

"What?" The Guildmaster stared at him with wide eyes, expression paling. "No…no way. You – you were Six Paws. _You_ were – Oh, Primus, _no._ " She covered her mouth with one hand, eyes wide in alarm.

"Maria?" Stanford frowned.

Sixer remembered then.

He _had_ met the Guildmaster before.

Now the title made much more sense – she was the leader of a guild. A guild made of creatures with abilities that normal animals did not have.

 _"I know what it feels like to be on the run - Pika does, too. If you tell me what's hunting you, we might be able to help."_

"Arceus damnit I could have _helped!"_ the Guildmaster yelled. "I should have stuck with you not – not just let Palkia divide us! Damnit, why didn't I _know_ before now?! I should have caught this sooner! I should have…." She ran a hand over her face, barely holding back sobs. "I should have rescued you sooner. I'm sorry."

Why was she apologizing to him? She did what her goal was: taking them from Cipher's control. What reason did she have to apologize?

The Guildmaster took in a shaky breath, then moved her hand away from her face. Her eyes were wet. "Arceus damnit. I wish I could do more, but I don't know how to bring a person's willpower back. I don't know how much you've gone through and I only have the _vaguest_ idea of how to help you guys now."

…Help?

…the Guildmaster wasn't making it any easier to figure out what she might need him for.

The Guildmaster ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I'm going to need to think about a plan of attack. Stanford, you think you could get Sixer a change of clothes? Maybe get him to take a shower? Wearing black for Fire-Types may work for some, but for Vulpix or Vulpix-based creatures it's not the best of ideas."

"And baths aren't?"

"No, they're good things. I never had any trouble with getting wet. Fast drying, too – just warm yourself up with a pulse of heat and instant steam-dry!" The Guildmaster tried to smile, but it wasn't a large one. "Please, Stanford?"

Stanford looked annoyed at the request, muttering something.

"Come on, Poindexter, she can't exactly keep an eye on him when he's in the bathroom," Stan's counterpart called over as he and Stan moved towards one of the Shack copies.

Stanford sighed. "All right. Fine." He looked over at Sixer, and the annoyed expression on his face wavered. Then he shook his head and motioned for Sixer to follow him.

Sixer didn't glance back at the Guildmaster as he followed his counterpart and his brother disappeared inside ahead of them.

"Mabel," Stanford called as they stepped inside. "I may need your assistance!"

Sixer's ears flicked as he followed his counterpart inside and heard the sound of feet thudding against the wooden floors.

His own niece's counterpart – unchanged from the appearance he was now familiar with – came down a set of stairs and came to a stop when she saw Stanford and Sixer standing in the doorway. Her eyes grew wide. "Grunkle Ford, what—"

"This is Sixer," Stanford said, motioning to Sixer. "He's…" He hesitated, then lowered his voice slightly. "I have reason to suspect that his Cipher is the one who caused our dimensions to merge together."

Mabel's eyes widened sharply. "Really? Then – then his dimension's involved too? But there isn't a fifth Shack anywhere!"

"Because his dimension hasn't been merged with ours." Stanford paused. "Not yet, at least. Maria just led a rescue of him and his family from Cipher's control, and I am going to need your help with something involving them."

Mabel looked a little pale, but she nodded quickly. "Yeah, sure. What is it?"

"I'm afraid you're going to have to take some of my clothes and alter them. Do you think you can do that?"

"Alter them how?"

"Well, I doubt that he would be able to fit into any of my pairs of pants because of those tails of his." Stanford side-eyed Sixer; he didn't return his gaze. "So if you could assist me in—"

"I'm on it, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel replied instantly. "You can count on me!" She promptly scrambled upstairs as fast as she could.

"Now that that's settled." Stanford motioned for Sixer to follow him upstairs to the second floor. Sixer did so – quietly, head slightly bowed and watching his feet more than he was watching anything else.

They reached the hall of the second floor and passed by a couple different rooms – one of them had the door open, and Sixer could hear Stan and his counterpart talking inside.

"…not exactly in the best of places right now."

"Yeah, not that hard to notice that. It was that bad, huh?"

"That bad and worse. If you want me to make any decision on what I'm _called,_ you're gonna have ta doing something to _let_ me make that decision."

Sixer could tell who it was that was speaking, and he didn't think the subject was something that he should ask about.

Stanford came to a stop a short distance ahead of him, then turned and motioned for Sixer to step into the bathroom. Sixer did so – quietly, tails moving close in order to avoid getting stuck in the door as Stanford closed it behind the two of them.

"All right." Stanford looked at Sixer, hands behind his back and standing a little straighter. "Do you still remember how everything in here works?" There was a wariness in his eyes that Sixer was familiar with – it was the sort of look he received from people and counterparts alike out in the multiverse.

He looked around the bathroom, taking in the old and rusting materials that made up the sink and tub and shower head in this particular room.

It all felt…vaguely familiar. Some part of him thought that he would be able to find his way around just by instinct alone.

He nodded absently and started to undress, the sweater being pulled off first. He didn't look over when Stanford sucked in his breath sharply – he knew what exactly it was that coated his body in a map of scars that made him similar but different from his counterparts at the same time. He didn't need to see the look on Stanford's face.

He finished undressing and moved to the shower. The cold water that hit him in the face as soon as he turned the faucet made him wince back for a moment, but it warmed up after a few seconds as he started rinsing himself off. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Stanford pulled the shower curtain shut around him.

Oh, right. Privacy, was it? Was that what Stanford was giving him? The word felt unfamiliar in his head. Sixer wasn't even sure where it had come from.

Sixer let the thought slip out of his head as he instead focused on what the Guildmaster had requested Stanford make sure he did – get cleaned up. From what, he wasn't entirely certain, but there was something about how the water ran over him and soaked his tails as they curled around his feet that felt…

…Sixer wasn't sure how to describe how it made him feel. He let the thought slide out of his mind and focused on the task at hand.

He wasn't sure how long it took him to run soap through his tails and rinse them out as best he could but the water was running lukewarm and his tails had quadrupled in weight because of the water. He was attempting to wring his tails out when he heard a knock on the bathroom door.

 _"_ _I got it done, Grunkle Ford!"_ Mabel's voice was muffled by the door, but it still came through loud and clear. _"I had to eyeball it, though, so I don_ _'_ _t know if it_ _'_ _ll be big enough. I did the same thing to a pair of your boxers – I hope you don_ _'_ _t mind!"_

Sixer blinked a couple times as he heard the door open slightly.

"I don't mind," Stanford replied. There was – _something_ – in his voice that Sixer couldn't identify. "It may take a few minutes for us to find out."

"That's fine! I'll be around if you need me!"

Stanford closed the door again. Sixer winced a little as he twisted a tail in the wrong way as he attempted to get as much of the water out of his fur as possible.

…hadn't the Guildmaster said something about "steam-drying?"

Sixer thought back to what exactly it was the Guildmaster had said – something about raising one's own body temperature and causing it to drop just as suddenly was enough to suddenly dry off? The way she had described it suggested that it was meant to be simple. It probably was, to her.

…but she had been a Vulpix at the same time he had been. Perhaps it had been instinctual?

Sixer felt that it had been a hint from the Guildmaster that he should try to do this thing that she had said. Before he could even start to consider how to begin, however, Stanford threw the shower curtain open with an expression akin to impatient annoyance.

"Come on. Using towels will probably dry you off more quickly than whatever other method you might have devised."

Sixer let Stanford pull him out of the shower, then suddenly had a towel thrown in his face.

"I don't expect you to do all the work, but I _do_ expect you to do some of it," Stanford said briskly.

Sixer hadn't been expecting that.

Stanford's expression wavered for a moment, but then it hardened into a determined expression that Sixer still found familiar. "Well, come on, then."

The work was quick, and it left Sixer's tails in a fluffy, damp mess with the fur sticking out in all directions. Sixer's first instinct was to smooth the fur down in an attempt to make his tails feel more comfortable, but then he noticed the pile of clothes sitting over by the door.

Stanford noticed his gaze move. "Go ahead and get in those. I think Maria might want to burn the rest of your little uniform." His mouth curled into a sneering expression that distinctly made him look like he was planning on enjoying that.

Sixer decided against saying anything and instead reached for the clothes – red sweater first. He pulled it on over his head – it felt distinctly looser than the black sweater had been. The same could be said for the rest of the clothes provided. He eyed his boots for a moment, but before he could grab them Stanford scooped them up along with the rest of his old uniform.

"Looks like Mabel was able to guess rather well on her measurements," Stanford commented. "Come on, then."

As they stepped out of the bathroom, Mabel moved out of the way of the two of them and watched as Sixer followed Stanford back downstairs and out of the house. Sixer didn't so much meet her gaze as she met his as he moved past; the look on her face was one that he couldn't completely identify.

She slipped in ahead of him and moved to fall into step next to Stanford. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"I'm…not sure," Stanford replied.

When they passed by Stanley's room again, it was empty. Clearly, Stan and his counterpart had finished doing what they needed to there and had moved on ahead.

The clearing outside of the Shack was quiet when Stanford, Mabel, and Sixer moved out into the open. The Guildmaster was standing near the middle of the clearing, hand held to her forehead as though she had a headache. Sixer's family was also present, along with Sphinx, Stanley, and Mizar.

He noticed absently that they had changed clothes – Stan was wearing a loose-fitting, dark-colored shirt and gray sweatpants, Mabel had a plain, bright pink sweater with slits in the back for her wings and a purple skirt, and Dipper was wearing a deep green shirt and tan-colored shorts. Their feet, like his, were bare.

There were also a pair of figures that Sixer didn't recognize – two blond and black-haired men, one wearing a red trench coat with a strange design as his hair defied gravity and stuck straight up, revealing black underneath the blond. By contrast, the other's hair was short, colored a yellow that was almost white, with a singular black lightning stripe going down the middle of his head.

Both of them looked over at Sixer as he emerged from the Shack. The man with short hair looked grim, while the other watched with wide, blue-green eyes that almost made him appear younger.

The Guildmaster looked up when Sixer approached. He paused when he locked his gaze with hers, pulling back behind Stanford and Mabel for a moment. But then the Guildmaster jerked her head in a clear motion of "come over here," and he did so, moving silently to stand behind her, hands clasped behind his back.

The Guildmaster sent him a strange look, eyebrows furrowed and mouth pressed into a small line, but she sighed and shook her head again and turned to look at the rest of the group as Stanford threw what Sixer had been wearing onto a pile of clothes that his family had been wearing previously.

In an instant, Sixer's nose was hit with such a stench that he pulled back a little when it collided with his nose. His ears flicked; where was that—

"Eugh." The Guildmaster moved a hand over her nose. The others in the group reacted similarly to Sixer, only they reacted with more than just a slight wince. One of the Guildmaster's eyes was closed. "Must be some kind of…time-resistant field around them or something. If something leaves their presence for long enough, time catches up in some way. Guh, that smells _terrible,_ though. No objections to me burning this stuff out of existence?"

"None on my end!" Stanley barked back. "Get rid of it before we attract who _know_ s what from out of the woods!"

The Guildmaster didn't need any more prompting; a fireball swirled to life in one hand, casting off a red-yellow afterglow.

"This _might_ make it smell worse, but honestly the sooner we get rid of this the better!" the Guildmaster warned.

And that was the only warning she gave before she threw the fireball into the piles of clothes which was clearly starting to gather flies.

As soon as the fireball hit the black of Sixer's former wear, Mizar yelped, "Hit the deck!"

There was very little time to react; Sixer found himself suddenly pushed to the ground as an explosion went off from the clothes, releasing a purple mushroom cloud that almost seemed to grin at them with the twisted, but still clearly visible face of a skull.

"Fire Sphere!" The Guildmaster threw a hand out, sending a second fireball at the burning circle where the clothes had once sat whole. Instead of hitting that, however, the fireball went up – towards the cloud of purple – and collided with the skull, breaking it for a moment and disappearing inside.

Sixer looked between it and the Guildmaster as the purple cloud started to get larger and more menacing, before it paused and looked confused.

A little speck of orange appeared in its center mere seconds before a bright fire consumed the cloud and left nothing in the air but ash as the fire on the ground died abruptly.

It took a few moments for the Guildmaster to say anything after that. She moved her arm off his chest – she had been the one who had pushed him to the ground – and moved into a more comfortable sitting position. "Well. That happened."

"What the he—eck was that?" Stanley demanded from where he was sitting. It seemed to Sixer he was able to say a different word before he had very quickly changed course. "And how'd whatever you did make it go away, anyway?"

"Instinct," the Guildmaster replied. "I think."

"You _think?_ "

"Look, when you've been traveling around the multiverse long enough it gets hard to tell where instinct ends and where skill begins," the Guildmaster replied shortly. She rubbed a thumb against one of her temples and sighed irritably. "We can argue about which one it was later – Stanford, Sphinx, Sixer, do you have _any_ idea what just happened?"

Sixer blinked in surprise when the Guildmaster included him in the line-up with his counterparts as Sphinx and Stanford exchanged looks. It was likely that she thought he might know something about this considering that part of the now pile of ashes had once been his to wear.

"My best guess is that in allowing time to catch up, all the bacteria and diseases they'd had attached to their clothes banded together into some form of semi-sentient life," Stanford commented. "It certainly could be possible."

"In an accelerated form of time where it is more than likely that they would die without any form of a physical host to leech off?" Sphinx argued. "Doubtful. It has to be some other variable – perhaps something that you are overlooking."

"Well, if I am going to overlook it, perhaps you will as well," Stanford shot back somewhat irritably.

"We may be counterparts, but that does not mean that we think about things the same way," Sphinx replied calmly. His tail tip twitched; Sixer couldn't help but think that his counterpart was more irritated than he made himself appear to be at first glance. "Perhaps there is something about the clothes themselves that caused this reaction?"

"Considering that the only ones of us who would know anything _about_ these things were also the ones _wearing_ them…." Stanford looked over at Sixer. "What say you?"

Before Sixer could answer, Stan nudged his counterpart and cleared his throat a little.

"Yeah, Crescent?" Stanley raised an eyebrow.

Sixer blinked. That was the nickname they decided on?

"You-know-who had one of his henchies put those together," Crescent explained. "I have no idea where she got the stuff ta make 'em, but—"

"She?" the Guildmaster repeated.

"Yeah, uh…" Crescent glanced over at Stanley, who gave him an impatient look. "Tall, one eye, horns on her head, knew so much about fire her clothes were—"

"Pyronica," the Guildmaster said.

Sixer's ears flicked sharply in the Guildmaster's direction. Her tone was grim, strangely so.

"How do you know that name?" Stanford asked, frowning.

The Guildmaster fidgeted. "One hears things, traveling about as I do. At home, I was able to watch what you went through, remember? And that includes the round of introductions Cipher gave his Henchmaniacs when he was initially bearing down on the town." She made a face. "But we only got basic introductions, and nothing else. Something tells me there are things about them that I'd rather not know about."

The Guildmaster's voice sounded uneasy. Sixer shifted where he was sitting a little, pulling himself more upright and keeping his gaze from where she was sitting – keeping it from everyone in the area, in fact.

"Yeesh, sounds like you guys had a really bad time," commented the man with spiky hair.

"I applaud you for stating the obvious, brother," the other said dryly, getting a wince in response.

Sixer blinked.

"So, she probably used some material that didn't take well to being set _on_ fire in a way that was destructive, then." The Guildmaster scratched her head, frowning, then sighed and rose to her feet. "Well, at least it isn't going to be a problem anymore, so I can change the subject to something that I think we _really_ need to discuss."

"What is it?" Mizar asked, frowning.

"We're gonna need some guidelines."


	3. Adjusting

**Thanks to okoroezenwa for the Follow!**

 **Chapter 23/3 - Adjusting**

Guidelines?

It was likely she meant restrictions. A part of Sixer had been expecting this – he'd had restrictions given to him before, what could be and could not be said, what could be done.

Sixer turned his attention to the Guildmaster then, ready for what she decided.

"We're gonna have to watch what we say around them," the Guildmaster said, looking at Mizar, Stanley, and Sphinx in turn.

…what?

"I don't know if you've noticed, but these guys are probably going to be open to taking _anything_ we say literally. So I'm gonna start with some easy ones – we can't tell them to kill people, even in jest."

The gagging gasp that came from the spiky-haired man caused Sixer's ears to flick in his direction.

"Just getting that off the table, Vash, because I'm _pretty sure_ that they've done that." The Guildmaster held a hand out to the spiky-haired man – Vash, apparently – in a strange motion that Sixer didn't recognize: arm straight out, palm facing towards the earth.

"That doesn't make me feel any better about this," Vash whined, looking pained and pale.

The Guildmaster nodded a little, then looked over at everyone else. "And we should take into account what moral boundaries we shouldn't be crossing – if they wouldn't _normally_ do _anything_ under _any circumstances,_ don't tell them to do it." She looked over at Sixer, looking him over, and frowned.

Sixer was thrown for a loop. He had been expecting restrictions _on_ himself and his family, not on the Guildmaster and the others in control of them. They were the ones in power here – why did they need rules?

"That certainly is a danger, isn't it?" Sphinx murmured worriedly. He looked over at Mabel, who was staring at the Guildmaster with wide eyes. "Star, if anything comes up and I ask you to do something you are not completely comfortable with, you _will_ let me know, all right?"

Mabel – Star – looked at him sharply while Sixer stared with a slightly wide-eyed expression of his own. Something tried to stir at the back of his mind, but he pushed it back instinctually.

Star stared for a moment, then nodded quickly. Sphinx relaxed.

"Good. I don't want to force you to do anything you wouldn't feel comfortable about. And if you have any questions, you can ask any of us for answers, all right?"

Star's eyes got even wider. "S-so, I don't _have_ to use my powers?"

"If you would prefer not to," Sphinx replied. "Although, I do admit, you've got me curious." He shifted his sitting position next to her. "But if you're not comfortable using them, would you be comfortable _telling_ me about them later?"

Star considered the question, then nodded a little.

"Same goes for you, Pine." Mizar clapped a hand on Dipper's – Pine's – back, grinning as he turned sharply to look up at her with an expression of unabashed shock. "You guys are gonna need time to adjust to all this, and there's no way that I'm gonna make you do stuff with me – I've got _my_ brobro to do that with."

Crescent snorted at the comment. Mabel – Stanford's niece – looked between them with a wide-eyed look that clearly said she didn't completely know what they were talking about.

"Yeah, uh, I don't think that Cress here is gonna be doin' anything with any powers he's got," Stanley said. He looked a bit grim. "'Pparently, he's some kinda changeling that eats people to turn inta 'em."

Crescent nodded in confirmation as Sphinx, Mizar, Stanford, Mabel, and the Guildmaster looked over at him with surprised and startled expressions.

"Changeling…? Geez, first Demon Stans and Transcendence are one AU, and now that one gets involved in this, too…?" The Guildmaster sounded distinctly worried. "Well, yeah, no eating people is a definite thing. That probably just means he's going to be eating a lot more meat than everyone else."

"Sounds good to me," Crescent offered.

The Guildmaster nodded, then looked over at Sixer. Her mouth twitched for a moment, moving somewhat upwards, but she kept it from going further. "Sixer, just so you know, I'll be running things by you, too. I don't want to make you do things you're not comfortable with doing, and if you've got any questions or opinions about events that could end up coming up, go ahead and voice them. Different perspectives on things can help us find a solution to something faster, sometimes even when it contradicts something that I might end up telling you."

 _That_ was _not_ what Sixer had been expecting _at all_.

"A-are you sure that's wise, Guildmaster?" Sixer asked, looking at the Guildmaster with a guarded, but nervous expression.

The Guildmaster frowned. "Well, yeah. I appreciate input on all my decisions from whoever happens to be with me. And since you're going to be with me a lot more than anyone else now because of this connection, having your opinion on decisions I could make would be pretty helpful. I mean, I still have the option to disregard opinions – I do that with everyone – but I like being able to hear what other people think."

"I think you broke him," Crescent called over before Sixer could respond. "Kid, look, I know you mean well, but…" He trailed off, looking like he wasn't exactly sure where else he wanted to go with this.

"You can't give them everythin' an' expect 'im ta be okay right off the bat," Stanley finished. "At least, 'ccordin' ta Crescent." He clapped a hand on his counterpart's shoulder and added, "Take it slow, kid."

Crescent nodded in agreement.

The Guildmaster mad a noise that sounded like a quiet groan of frustration. "I just – I'm used to dealing with _tech_ mind control, not…not something like this." She ran her hand down her face as Sixer watched her warily, looking between her, Crescent, and Stanley with a guarded expression. Ready at a moment's notice. "Sorry. Sixer, you don't _have_ to – it's an _option._ I may still ask for your opinion on occasions, but if you feel that you need to in certain situations, you can ask or voice your opinion then, all right?"

Sixer hesitated. This was…a…a compromise? It felt like the right word.

Cipher never compromised. It wasn't in his nature.

Yet another thing that he was going to have to get used to.

Sixer nodded when he noticed that the Guildmaster's gaze was on him, and she relaxed a little. Something was starting to buzz at the back of his mind, however.

He tried to ignore it, but the questions were starting to bubble up again, starting with one in particular.

 _What did the Guildmaster mean when she said she knew about tech mind control?_

"Okay; good." The Guildmaster sighed and ran her hand over her face again. "Okay okay okay…so no killing, no doing things that they wouldn't be comfortable with under normal circumstances, give them options to speak their minds…" She looked over at Sixer. "There are some sayings that might sound like they're suggesting orders that could change how they think mentally. Either we tell them to tell the difference between a saying and an order or we just stop saying those sayings entirely."

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Mizar pointed out.

"I'm trying to cover all my bases, because I _know_ sayings can be taken a little too literally sometimes." The Guildmaster looked at Sixer. "It might be easier if we just said to take anything that manipulates how they think with a grain of salt – that is, _ask_ if that was supposed to be an order or not. Like, 'don't worry' or 'don't be afraid' shouldn't be taken as orders to knock those emotions out of their heads completely."

Crescent made a noise at that; Star and Pine exchanged looks, but Sixer kept his gaze on the Guildmaster as she spoke. He…supposed, there was some sense in what she was saying, but it was still throwing him off. He wasn't expecting her to be putting restrictions on _herself_. It didn't seem…

…well, if this was how she wanted to do things, then so be it. He wasn't going to attempt to correct her.

"If anything else ends up coming up as we go along, we'll have to amend the guidelines, but I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to cover for now," the Guildmaster added. She sighed again; it sounded heavy. "Now we just have to make sure you guys can settle in and…and get you to be more like yourselves again."

Crescent started to respond, but Stanley elbowed him in the side. "She's not talkin' about _actin_ _'_ like you're okay, knucklehead. You can go ahead an' do that, but she's probably gonna know that you're hidin' the fact that you're _not_ okay. Kay?"

Crescent looked confused for a second at his counterpart's words, but then he nodded slowly. "Kay."

Stanley grinned and chuckled. "All-right-y, then." The grin dropped. "So let's get a few things settled – who has extra room where we can let these guys sleep? Because I don't think we can let these guys just…split. Doesn't seem like a very good idea."

Sixer's ear flicked at that, his gaze moving over to Stanley at that comment.

"Okay, what's going on?" Mabel spoke up. "I'm _really_ confused. Why's Grunkle Sixer quiet?"

Sixer's ear flicked again.

"Mabel, he—" The Guildmaster sighed and shook her head. "How do I put this…"

"Cipher…he did something to them," Stanford said carefully. "We – that is, my counterparts and I – were aware that he had caused Sixer to…to turn to his side, but none of us were aware of the extent of that turning, much less what had happened to him as a result. Now that we know a little bit more, well…." He trailed off, considering his next words carefully.

Crescent sighed. "Simplest way to put it is we lost."

The Guildmaster visibly winced as the expressions of those present shifted to shock.

"…wait, what?" Mabel let out a nervous laugh. "Th-that can't be right."

Crescent shrugged. "Well, it did. The Zodiac or whatever didn't work."

"It didn't work for us, either," Stanley spoke up.

Sixer blinked. If it hadn't worked, then…

"Wait, what?" Crescent stared at Stanley with a blank expression.

"Yeah. Ford and I pulled a swap on Cipher and tricked 'im into makin' a deal with me instead'a him. Then I got my memory blasted out and killed Cipher in the same move." Stanley mimed shooting himself in the head. "Got most a' my memories back from that, an' no sign of that stupid triangle."

"Amen to that," the Guildmaster said with a note of relief. She looked at Sixer curiously, then frowned when she saw the confusion flicker across his face. "You…you guys didn't do that, did you?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then shook his head slowly. The memories were vague, but he could remember them well enough. "No, Guildmaster. As soon as the Zodiac failed, he did as he wished with us."

Mabel let out an audible gasp. "That's – that's horrible!" She promptly ran forward and wrapped her arms around Sixer's waist. He looked down at her with a slightly confused expression as she looked back at him with wet eyes, but a frown that wasn't angry. "We're gonna do everything we can to make sure you guys are okay. Cipher's not here, he's not gonna be able to get you guys anymore, _and_ you've got lots of mes who are going to be able to help!" She looked over at Mizar with a determined expression. "Right?"

"Right." Mizar nodded in agreement.

"Good. I'm gonna go tell Dipper so we can figure out what we can do to help! Talk to you later!" Mabel let Sixer go – his expression still with muted confusion – and she ran back towards the shack she and Stanford had come out of, yelling, "Dipper! I need a plan!"

"I guess Mabel got done with leading Vash around town and got back here before we did?" the Guildmaster asked.

The young man with hair that defied gravity nodded. "Yeah; we got back ten minutes before you did." He frowned worriedly. "Maria, did you know that there was a Dipper with pointed ears and wings on his—"

"Yeah, that's Alcor – he's Mizar's twin brother." The Guildmaster waved off his concerned expression. "Absorbed Cipher's power when he beat him in their dimension, and now he's a dream demon. Mizar helps him keep his humanity, so I'm not worried about him being around."

"And you know about that how?" Stanley asked.

"Fanfiction," the Guildmaster replied. "We don't have Twin Stars, though, which I think is a boon."

"And I _don_ _'_ _t,"_ Mizar said pointedly. "I've got a collection of it in Grunkle Journal's library, if you ever want to read it."

The Guildmaster gave Mizar a raised eyebrow expression. "I'll think about it. First, we gotta find a place to let these guys sleep for a while. Do we have any guest rooms open anywhere?"

"We do."

Sixer's ears flicked in the direction of the voice as the Guildmaster turned. The young man's voice was…almost familiar.

"Tyrone's and Maple's dad?" the Guildmaster asked. Sixer stiffened.

Shermie's son. He was here? In Gravity Falls?

"And you're the person who I have to thank for bringing my uncles home. Alex Pines." Alex held out a hand in greeting.

The Guildmaster took it. "Maria Carlsdale. I hope Gravity Falls is treating you well."

"Well, if by that you mean the gnomes tried to kidnap my daughter our first day up here, yes. What the…who are—"

"They're from a dimension where…things turned out badly," the Guildmaster said carefully. "Really badly. And we've got a year to help them out and prep for the demon's inevitable invasion. Again."

"Again? All you people are talking about demons and I've never seen him face to face."

Sixer turned slightly at that, eyeing Alex's appearance. He looked similar to his own brother's son, from what he vaguely remembered – dark hair, curly, dark eyes. He was slightly skinnier than the Alex he remembered, however.

"You're lucky you haven't," Stanley grunted.

"So my uncles tell me," Alex replied dryly. He looked back at the Guildmaster, pausing at Sixer's gaze. "We have an extra room, since Uncle Stan and Uncle Ford said they wanted to sleep in the same room. It'll take us a little to get some beds moved in, but we should have the room set up in a couple days." He looked Sixer again, faltering slightly. "I'll…I'll go get started on that. But I _would_ like to talk with you later, young lady – you seem to have a good head on your shoulders, and if my uncles trust you, then you should be able to tell me what's going on a little better."

"I'll see what I can do, but I don't think I have all the pieces yet."

Alex seemed to accept that answer, because he nodded slightly, then went back towards one of the houses. A group of figures were standing on the porch – Sixer saw that his brother's counterpart had an eyepatch, but he didn't notice anything else that was different about them.

Stan moved in front of his brother a little more protectively, and Sixer felt the glare's heat from across the clearing. His tails twitched, but he didn't give any other reaction.

He was used to looks like that by now.

"…might as well introduce them to you too," the Guildmaster murmured. She sighed. "This is gonna be fun."

She started towards the building, glancing back at Sixer as she got halfway across the clearing. He started moving after her.

Crescent shot him a look as he passed, but he didn't glance over to see what his expression was.

Stan seemed to become larger as the two of them approached – and not just because of perspective. The man seemed to be trying to make himself appear more imposing while his brother peered out from behind with a wide-eyed expression.

The Guildmaster motioned for Sixer to wait a short distance back from the porch as she moved up to stand in front of Stan.

"You've heard about him too, then."

Stan's gaze never left Sixer's face, although Sixer wasn't looking at him in return. "Not hard to when we've had bounty hunters come after us. What'd you do?"

"To put it bluntly, Sixer is leeching off _my_ willpower at the moment." The Guildmaster nodded in Sixer's direction. "Cipher did something that removed his. Same for the rest of his family. That's why they were following his orders and not doing anything to resist – they were incapable of it."

There was a hardness to her voice. Annoyance, anger. Sadness, too.

"Stanley rescued Sixer's brother, and Mizar and Sphinx got their Dipper and Mabel," Maria added. "So they're not listening to him. Not anymore."

Ford peered out from behind Stan as Tyrone and Maple stood behind him, peering out curiously.

"But how'd they get here in the first place?" Tyrone asked. "If they're working with—"

"That's the other problem." The Guildmaster winced a little. "On top of the fact that we have to figure out how to get them to recover from what's happened, we're on a time crunch. Cipher sent them _here_ because he got too greedy. He's coming through next August to try to take this dimension, too."

Ford stiffened at that, eyes widening sharply out of alarm.

"Moses on a pogo stick," Stan muttered. "I'd just thought that _the kids_ were rumors but this? This is a whole 'nother level of bad."

"You knew about what happened to Pine and Star?" The Guildmaster sounded surprised. "Sphinx didn't. How—"

"We ran into another Ford who told us about some kinda breakout. Well, told Ford, anyway. He kept giving me the stinkeye fer one reason or another."

"Breakout?" The Guildmaster looked over at Sixer. "Stanford said you caught Fords and took them to their Ciphers. Was this them escaping?"

"Yes, Guildmaster." Sixer nodded a little, and Ford's eyes widened sharply. "One of my captured counterparts broke out of his cell when the – when _he_ was looking into other dimensions to invade. He returned as soon as he sensed the event and sent us in to recapture my counterparts. We were not completely successful, as some did manage to escape."

"And I'm glad for that," Stan said pointedly. "It helped keep us on guard a little better."

Ford nodded in agreement, but his gaze didn't move from Sixer, who was focusing more on his counterpart's feet than his face.

"So, what now?" Maple asked. "If – if something's coming next year—"

"We prepare for it," the Guildmaster replied in unison with Stan.

Stan nodded. "Get all our defenses shored up – and warn as many people as we can, too. Maybe take that global."

"Actually, we might not have to." The Guildmaster held up a hand, causing Stan to frown. "There's a natural barrier around town that will keep Cipher in place; it'll stall him for a little while, at least." She looked over at Sixer. "I assume one of the first things he did was have you hand over the equation for that, though."

"Yes, Guildmaster." Sixer nodded.

"I-I doubt th-that equation i-is the exa-act same as what's required here."

Sixer's ears twitched. His counterpart's voice was quiet, and carried a stutter, unlike Stanford's and Sphinx's voices.

"Th-there's four d-dimensions mer-merged together," Ford added. "Th-that changes var-variables."

"…Which would at least slow him down," the Guildmaster said after a moment. "Since he has the equation for Sixer's dimension, he's gonna need some time to figure out which variables have changed as a result of the dimensions merging together. But in the meantime, we've got other things to think about."

The Guildmaster looked at Sixer; he quickly moved his gaze so that he wasn't looking her directly in the eye.

"Let's get these guys settled in and started on the road to recovery. I'd rather not leave Sixer in this state for longer than he already has been."

Sixer didn't hear if there was a response to the Guildmaster's statement, because he was suddenly hit with a wave of pain from the lower part of his torso. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around his middle and dropped to his knees, bending over double, eyes tightly shut and teeth gritted against the pain.


	4. Full Stomachs

**There _won't_ be a chapter posted next week. I'm keeping this guy on a schedule with my other fic, Maria's Adventures: GF Mashup, and she isn't going to be sitting and doing nothing between this chapter and the next one.**

 **So I'll see you readers on this side of the story in two weeks!**

 **Chapter 4 – Full Stomachs**

"Sixer!" The Guildmaster was next to him instantly. Her voice was muted, as most of his focus was taken by the pain. "What's going on?"

Sixer shook his head. "I don't—"

Similar cries of pain started going up across the clearing.

"Get something in their stomachs _now!"_ yelled the voice of a Stanley. "I'm the only one who's been eating things!"

Crescent.

That was the only thing Sixer was able to register before he smelled _something_ being held near his face. It didn't smell familiar, but at the same time—

"Take a bite of this," the Guildmaster ordered. "Make sure to chew and swallow."

Sixer did as he was told, taking a bite of the whatever it was the Guildmaster wanted him to. The sensation that hit his mouth nearly caught him off-guard, and he blinked a couple times in surprise as he chewed and swallowed.

The pain in his middle lessened slightly.

The Guildmaster pulled one of his arms away from his stomach and pressed the object into his hand. "Eat the rest of this. I'm going to make sure that Star and Pine have something in their stomachs." She pulled away and moved out of his line of sight.

Sixer looked down and blinked at the large…fruit? in his hand. Yellow with darker brown spots and pear-shaped, with a bite taken out of it.

It looked familiar, but Sixer wasn't about to dwell on that. He took another bite of the fruit instead, focusing on what the Guildmaster told him to do. A few more bites, and the fruit was gone.

"Where is she pulling those things out of?" Stan demanded, watching something behind Sixer.

"S-subspace?" Ford suggested quietly.

"How would she have access to that?! That's some kinda magic voodoo sh—scrap."

"I have an adopted older sister who's Cybertronian," the Guildmaster replied as she walked back over. "It was only a matter of time before I managed to gain that technique." She knelt down next to Sixer. "Your stomach still hurt? Or do you think your hunger's been satisfied for now?"

 _Hunger._ That's what it was. It took him a second to remember what exactly it meant.

Sixer shook his head slightly, and the Guildmaster seemed to get the message because she handed him an apple that looked larger than it was probably supposed to be. "Eat until you either no longer feel hungry or you feel full."

Sixer nodded and started into the apple with mechanical movements. Now that he was aware of what was causing the pain, he knew how it needed to be solved. However, it had been so long since he last had to _think_ about food in any sort that the movements felt more unfamiliar than familiar.

"Where'd you get one of those that big?" Stan asked.

"What, that Big Apple? That is literally what it's called, by the way. I picked them up in another dimension that I visited a long time ago. Practically lived off them for a full year, now that I think about it. I'll have to see if I can plant some trees around here somewhere – both for the Apples and my Berries. They could be useful depending on what decides to hit us over the next year."

"If that thing you gave him before was a berry I'll eat my eyepatch," Stan said flatly. "That thing looked as big as a pear."

"Not my fault the climate of different planets is different from Earth's," the Guildmaster replied. "You'll see what I mean – they probably will end up berry-sized here; you never know."

Sixer kept gnawing on the fruit, not looking up to watch them but listening all the same. The fruit the Guildmaster had given him before was familiar, then – it had come from the world they had met on before.

The Guildmaster had also mentioned _visiting_ that dimension. Taking that into account, that meant she was a traveler.

…but why was she here?

It took him a moment to realize that he'd managed to eat everything except for the core of the apple. He pulled it out of his mouth before he could start chewing.

His stomach wasn't begging for food so much anymore, but it still felt empty, somehow.

"Feeling okay, Sixer?"

Sixer looked up at the question and met the Guildmaster's gaze. "I…" He hesitated for a moment, then said, quietly, "I am neither no longer hungry, nor full yet."

The Guildmaster's eyebrows rose. "Wow, that's a _really_ empty stomach, then. Hm." She frowned, then looked over at Stan. "Your nephew wouldn't mind if Vash and I took over the kitchen for a bit, would he?"

"What, you plannin' on cooking in there?"

"That's the idea." The Guildmaster reached under her jacket and pulled out another large apple, holding it out to Sixer to take. He took it carefully in both hands and started taking bites of it immediately. "Fruit is only going to do so much, you know?"

Stan grunted. "All right. But you'd better make enough for—"

"Way ahead a' ya. Keep an eye on Sixer for me? Vash! Get over here – we gotta make an all-you-can-eat buffet!"

"I'm on it!" One of the blond-haired young men came scrambling over, legs practically going in all directions. "Where's the kitchen?"

"In here." The Guildmaster had a gleam in her eye. "Come on – I've got a few recipes in mind."

The two of them disappeared into the house with quick speed, Stan and Ford stepping aside to let them move past.

Sixer ignored the stares he was getting as he ate the second apple down to its core. He looked down at what remained of the two apples he had been given, then set them down in the grass in front of him and rested his hands on his knees.

A pair of feet pattered away for a few minutes, then came back again. "Um… Sixer? Maria said we could talk with you if you felt up to it. She's gonna be busy in the kitchen for a while."

Sixer's ears twitched at Maple's words, and he lifted his head slightly to look in her direction. He nodded slightly and moved his gaze away from her eyes and to the porch.

Maple sat down on the edge of the porch.

"Maple—"

"It's okay, Tyrone, he's not gonna do anything." Maple gave her brother – who remained standing next to Ford and Stan – a smile before looking back at Sixer. The smile on her face faded a little when she saw that Sixer wasn't looking at her. "So, what are you? Some kinda fox-man?"

The Guildmaster had said – through Maple – that he could interact with them, so...

"I am a kitsune," Sixer corrected. His tails, fallen to disarray behind him when he had fallen to his knees from stomach pain, moved to either side of him – three and three, evenly split.

"Ooooo. So, can you speak Japanese?"

"No."

"Oh." Maple swung her legs back and forth, thinking. "So…did you _start_ as a kitsune or get turned into one?"

"Kid—"

"Transformed," Sixer replied, cutting Stan off.

Stan's voice died in his throat. Ford made a noise that sounded like shock.

"Oh," Stan said, after a moment. "I guess that settles that rumor."

"Rumor?" Tyrone repeated. "What's going on, Grunkle Stan? He's not – he's not acting like the other Great-Uncle Fords. It feels _wrong."_

"You don't know the half of it," Stan muttered. "Shoot, even _I_ don't know the half of it. All I know is his family got taken by—" He cut himself off and looked at Ford, who was pulling back further, away from Sixer and more behind Stan. "Hey, hey. It's okay. That monster can't get here yet. We got time. And we got friends now. Okay?" He put his hands on Ford's shoulders, making Ford look at Stan rather than Sixer. "And I'm still here, okay? Whatever what comes, we'll handle it together."

Ford hesitated, then nodded a little. "Y-yeah."

Sixer said nothing to the display. As Maple watched him, her brows furrowed together.

"Does…does Maria know there's something wrong?" Maple asked. "That you…that you're different?"

Sixer blinked at the question. "She is aware of what has happened."

He didn't _feel_ wrong. He felt the same as he had for…for a long time. He didn't see it as anything that needed to be changed.

Of course, he wasn't the one who had the final say. The Guildmaster was.

Maple's brow wrinkled further. "Sixer—"

"Kid, might as well leave him alone," Stan spoke up. "I think it's pretty obvious at this point that he's not gonna be answering questions the way you're expectin' 'em. We know all we need to know."

"Yeah, my bro's not one fer talkin." Crescent suddenly appeared next to Sixer, standing on his feet and with his arms folded across his chest. "Considerin' he didn't get _out_ much, I'm not surprised."

"Get out?" Stan repeated.

"He was tellin' me a few things," Stanley said as he came up behind them. "'Pparently, Sixer here was basically a trophy pet who occasionally got out for that whole bounty hunt thing. Which is just _sick,_ if you ask me. I mean, I know he wanted to cause the end of the world an' all, but doing this not only to my brother but givin' other demons the chance ta do it to _others?"_ His voice was rising; Sixer's ears flicked back, trying to keep as much of the sound out as possible.

"He did what?" Maple asked.

"Oh, man…." Tyrone swallowed audibly. "That's…that's pretty bad."

"Not just 'bad,'" Stan replied grimly. "Everyone else is in a panic because of that guy. The multiverse's turned into a _minefield._ "

At that, the group fell silent.

Crescent sat down next to Sixer, leaning back against the porch, not kneeling. He looked at Sixer, who returned his gaze, actually looking Crescent in the eyes.

"Hey. Somethin' tells me things'll turn out better," Crescent said. He lowered his voice and added, "An' no blackouts here. You're gonna be _fine,_ okay?"

Sixer blinked at Crescent's words. He considered those words, mulling over them in his head.

No blackouts.

He gave a slow nod in response to Crescent's words, which caused a grin to cross his brother's face.

"Now we just gotta wait for dinner. And judging by the smell it's gonna be _really_ good."

 **Time Break**

In the end, the Guildmaster not only got Stanley, Stan, and Crescent to help move tables out into the clearing, but also to bring out every scrap of food that apparently existed in the house.

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to make a grocery trip after this, Mr. Pines," the Guildmaster said to Alex as she carried out a pot of something. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, if any of this survives whatever you're planning, we'll have leftovers for a while," Alex replied. He looked down at the plate of…some kind of meat he was carrying. "What exactly is this, anyway?"

"Tomas meat. It's a flightless bird that lives on a desert planet. Toughest meat you're ever gonna eat, believe me."

Sixer watched from the base of the porch as the table was laid out and decked with strong-smelling food that was making his mouth water…although he wasn't sure why his mouth was doing that.

The amount of food that the Guildmaster and Vash had prepared was a massive amount. There were soups, sandwiches, cooked meats, and somehow all of it had come from one kitchen – that Sixer had noticed, at least. He hadn't been all that focused on paying attention to what was going on around him other than Crescent making idle chatter with Maple and Tyrone.

As the Guildmaster finished helping set up chairs, she turned and locked eyes with Sixer. "Come on! You're still hungry, aren't you?"

Sixer pushed himself up to his feet. He swayed for a moment before finding his balance by sticking his tails straight out behind him, then walked over to where the Guildmaster was standing.

She pulled a chair out from its place and motioned for him to sit. "It's exactly like I told you before. Eat until you're full or no longer hungry."

Sixer nodded quietly, then sat down in the chair – carefully, so as not to cause his tails to be pinched uncomfortably.

The Guildmaster patted the back of the chair, then moved around to the other side of the table and sat down across from him while the others moved to join them.

Crescent almost collapsed into the chair to Sixer's left, grinned, and stabbed a whole chicken before dragging it over to Sixer's plate. "There. Eat that."

Sixer stared at the chicken, and before he knew what he was doing he was tearing it apart. The smell of…of the cooked meat and spices _filled_ his nose to the point that he couldn't smell anything else.

And the _taste…!_

He hardly noticed Crescent pushing another half a chicken in his direction before he started on that one too. He wasn't sure why, but it felt like meat was the only thing he could really eat right at that moment.

And then another half-chicken appeared on his plate, and he ate that too.

He was gnawing on the remains of a leg bone to get the last bits of meat off when he noticed that his stomach wasn't complaining about having nothing in it anymore.

He blinked. Blinked again. His vision was getting fuzzy.

He leaned back in his chair, the contents of his stomach sloshing around in response to the movement. He didn't feel hungry, and he wasn't quite full but nearly there, he felt, so it was a good time to stop eating.

He lost all strength in his neck, and his head rolled back. He blinked. Was the sky changing colors? It looked like it was.

His eyelids felt heavy suddenly. He didn't know why, but…he couldn't…keep them…open….

 **Change in POV**

Crescent stared at his brother as he fell back out of his chair and fell limp on the grass, tails scattering in all directions. He blinked a couple times as Sixer's Guildmaster – Maria, wasn't that the kid's name? – sprung up from her chair and ran around to the other side of the table immediately and checked his pulse.

"I don't think any of that chicken was – oooh. Oh, hang on." Maria's eyes widened, and she looked up at Crescent. "He didn't let you _sleep_ much, did he?"

Oh. Oh, yeah, that would do something.

Crescent shook his head. "Beck and call 24/7."

Maria's face scrunched up into an annoyed, angered look. Crescent got the feeling that face was going to be happening a lot. "Well, isn't _that_ just great." She huffed, then reached under her jacket and pulled out a weird-looking green-yellow feather before tucking it behind one of Sixer's ears. If it was possible, the blank expression on Sixer's face became even _more_ relaxed, which Crescent blinked in surprise at.

 _Splat!_

Crescent looked over at the noise and snorted. Pine and Star had fallen face-first into what looked like chocolate pudding. It probably was, considering how much food there was scattered around the table.

His mouth watered a bit just thinking about all the sweets.

"Someone wanna give me some help getting Sixer into the house and onto a couch or something?" Maria called. She paused, then added somewhat sheepishly. "The kids, too. And probably Crescent when he keels over."

Crescent snorted at the idea, but then yawned immediately after.

In the end, Stanley and Stanford ended up helping Maria move Sixer into Stan's and Ford's place. And they did need three people because of Sixer's tails. Maria didn't carry those, though, which Crescent found interesting.

She lifted Sixer up by his shoulders and walked backwards into the house, arms locked around his shoulders while Stanford and Stanley balanced out his lower half.

It was…weird, to Crescent, that someone was willing to help them move around and get what they needed, when _they_ should have been the ones doing that for _them._

When Stanley came back out, he immediately went over to Crescent. "You look like you're about to fall over. C'mon." An arm went around Crescent's back and under his arms, helping him to his feet.

Crescent grunted; the position forced him to lean against his counterpart. "'Sn't feel right."

"Hm?" Stanley looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Should…'elpin' _you._ Not like this."

Crescent felt sluggish in the head as they got close to the porch. Felt like his vision was going too.

"Sweet Moses, you're really bad off," Stanley muttered. It sounded like it was really starting to hit him. "Yeah, no. No way am I lettin' ya try ta wait on me hand an' foot. I know what _that_ _'_ _s_ like." He muttered something in Spanish under his breath, cursing Rico and a number of other people that Crescent vaguely recognized. "I'm not gonna _use_ ya, idiot. Yer sick in the head, and you're gonna get better, or so help me I'll eat my fez."

Crescent openly stared at Stanley in surprise as Stanley dragged him up onto the porch and into the house. "You…what?"

"Yer a person, not somethin' less." Stanley dragged him over to an open couch – Crescent's legs weren't responding as quickly as they should have been. "If I have ta beat that inta yer skull, then so be it. But I'm not gonna use ya. That'd be stupid."

The mere idea of what Stanley was suggesting didn't make much sense to Crescent – to most of him, at least. The part of him that had stubbornly held on through his anger against the demon roared up in approval of Stanley's words, and…

…well, Crescent wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, because as soon as Stanley's words registered in his head, he was collapsing onto the couch, consciousness lost just as Pine and Star were carried into the house.


	5. Physical Adjusting

**Chapter 5 - Physical Adjusting**

 _"_ _Sixer?_ "

It took Sixer a moment to pull himself out of the darkness of sleep. He felt like he could remain there forever, but the Guildmaster's voice calling him was enough.

The Guildmaster's expression shifted as Sixer's eyes opened, becoming worried. "You've been asleep for two days. How're you feeling?"

Sixer's stomach growled before he could say a word.

The Guildmaster's expression softened a little at the sound. "Yeah, I figured that might be it. I'm gonna see about putting something together for you guys. You, uh…" She paused, considering. "It might be a good idea if you used the bathroom. Might."

Sixer blinked, and then he realized what the Guildmaster meant.

The Guildmaster noticed the look that crossed Sixer's face and nodded towards the stairs. "I thought as much – get going."

Sixer wasn't sure how quickly he moved to the bathroom, but it felt like time had slowed down from the moment he'd gotten up from the couch to the moment he finished relieving himself. It left him feeling hungry and with a dry feeling in his throat, but the hunger wasn't as crippling as it had been the day before.

Finished with what he needed to do in the bathroom, he opened the door and found himself face to face with Crescent.

"Move it," Crescent grunted. He pushed past Sixer and pushed the kitsune out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him and nearly pinching one of Sixer's tails.

Sixer's tails shifted closer to him, almost wrapping around his waist as he made his way back downstairs to the living room. Already he could start to smell something being cooked and – after last night – it only made his stomach growl even more insistently.

He was about to sit back down on the couch when the Guildmaster poked her head out of the kitchen and motioned him over. He paused, then moved to do just that.

The Guildmaster motioned for him to sit down at the table. There was a stack of something that looked like food in the middle of the table. "Help yourself to some pancakes; I'll have the eggs ready in a minute." She promptly went back to the stove and the frying pan that was sitting on it, looking at the pan's contents intently.

Sixer slowly sat down in one of the four chairs. He considered asking why she hasn't asked _him_ to take over, but then he remembered that questioning Cipher had been a bad idea.

And then he remembered that the Guildmaster had said he could ask questions if he felt the need to.

He reached out cautiously and took one of the pancakes from the stack on the table. "Why are you doing this, Guildmaster?"

The question caused the Guildmaster to pause in the middle of moving something yellow and fluffy from the pan to another plate – the eggs? She started moving again a second later, but more slowly. "What do you mean, Sixer?"

"Shouldn't…shouldn't you be telling _me_ to make _you_ a meal?"

The Guildmaster looked over her shoulder, holding a pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. Then she turned around fully, looking at Sixer with an expression he thought was unreadable. "Sixer, you're not someone I'm going to order around. You're a _responsibility,_ not some…" She took in a shaky breath, not looking like she was liking where this was going. "You're my equal, not anything less than that. And you've been through a lot. It wouldn't make sense for me to ask you to do anything when you've been physically weakened by what Cipher's done to you."

 _Equal?_

Sixer blinked in confusion as Crescent moved into the room. That didn't – that didn't make any sense. His present state left him open to whatever it was she needed him to be. Cipher had said he was less than _nothing._

What did the Guildmaster mean by seeing him as an _equal?_

The Guildmaster put the pan back on the stove and held the plate of eggs out to Crescent. "I just got done with these, if you're up for eating some scrambled eggs. There's bacon next to the pancakes, too."

Crescent's eyes widened, and he took the plate in both hands. A line of drool started on one side of his mouth. "Bacon and eggs? It's been too long." He promptly sat down at the table, pulled the bacon close, and started eating with a ferocity that left his plate clean in seconds and with a flash of white, sharp teeth.

The Guildmaster's eyebrows shot up. "…well, I guess that means I'm making more bacon and eggs this morning." She grinned, then turned back to the stove and started throwing strips of meat into the pan before she went looking for another one.

The sound and smell of sizzling meat hit Sixer's nose almost immediately, and he found _his_ mouth watering too. But at the same time his stomach churned. The half-eaten pancake he was chewing on suddenly didn't taste as good as it had been. It was more like eating ash.

Something in his stomach started to surge upwards. He bent over double facing the floor as a _violent_ chill ran down his spine and into his tails.

His stomach heaved, and the half-eaten pancake left his stomach in a rush; he leaned against the back of the chair as the Guildmaster shouted in alarm.

But something seemed wrong about it. Even as the Guildmaster moved in front of him, avoiding the vomited food remains, her voice was fading in and out in a way that didn't seem right.

His head felt heavy; why did he feel so _cold?_

 _"_ _Scrap scrap scrap – Guys!_ Stanley! _We've got a problem!"_

The darkness of unconsciousness called to Sixer, and he succumbed.

 **Change in POV**

Crescent stared at Sixer when he threw up the pancakes and keeled over. He'd _thought_ that his brother smelled a little funny, but to suddenly throw up and knock himself out wasn't what he had been expecting.

Stanley came barreling into the kitchen. "What's—"

"Sixer's sick. I think his immune system's compromised." Maria looked at Stanley, one hand on Sixer's forehead. "He's _losing_ heat – I'm getting him to the couch."

"So he's got what, a reverse fever?" Stanley helped Maria get Sixer out of the chair and practically draped him over her shoulders. " _Wow,_ he's cold."

"Yeah. If he's like this then—"

"Way ahead a' ya." Stanley moved over to Crescent, who watched him with a bit of bacon hanging out of his mouth. He pulled the bacon in using his tongue and swallowed. His stomach bucked, and he grunted in response as he attempted to keep it down.

Crescent had an iron stomach. He'd survived eating things worse than bacon and eggs.

Stanley put a hand against Crescent's forehead; he looked up at his counterpart as a frown moved across his face. At the same time, Crescent's body started to feel a little warmer.

"I dunno _what the hell_ is going on here but there's no way you should be gettin' a fever this fast," Stanley said. "Come on; _you're_ goin' ta bed."

Crescent grunted as Stanley pulled him to his feet. His legs felt like jelly suddenly – he hadn't noticed that when he'd been sitting. "Uh…could we make a detour?"

"Figured." Stanley adjusted his hold on his counterpart and started moving him out of the bathroom and towards the stairs, passing Maria as she hovered over Sixer on the couch. The kitsune was _shivering,_ and it looked like she was in the process of throwing three blankets over the top of him. "Should'a warned ya that givin' 'em that kinda food right off the bat was a bad idea."

Maria winced. "I…do admit that thought just came to me too. I should have started them on toast – but they were just fine after the buffet two days ago!"

"True, but they didn' give their stomachs much time before they basically shut down for two days," Stanley called back. He helped Crescent up the stairs as the changeling's stomach started to buck again. "This isn't gonna be fun for ya, just a warnin'."

"I don't –" Crescent fought with himself again, keeping the bile down. "I don't doubt it." He paused. "The kids—"

"Sphinx'll've noticed by now, I bet. An' unless Mizar _really_ wants ta make a deal with her brother, they're probably gonna come in soon, too."

Crescent nodded. His head was feeling heavier. "An you?"

"He took off with _all_ my ice cream from my freezer!" Stanley sounded indignant. "An' any more I put in there disappears too! Unless I get real desperate, that kid's flame-covered hands aren't gettin' anywhere near me."

Crescent gave a shaky laugh as they reached the bathroom and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Yeah; right. Let's take care a' that," Stanley muttered.

 **Change in POV**

Sixer felt like he was freezing from the inside out. With hardly enough strength to move, much less open his eyes to find out what was going on around him, he found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, catching half-said words and voices he couldn't quite identify.

 _"…_ _never seen someone fall this quickly or this badly before."_

 _"…_ _some kinda superbug?"_

 _"…_ _so I wasn't…wanted to…."_

The voices were familiar, but his addled brain couldn't figure out why.

 _"…_ _much heat as…dare…"_

And then _warmth,_ traveling from his head and down through the rest of him.

The shivering lessened. He _needed_ it. He needed _more._ He pushed up against the source of the heat as much as he could, with what little strength he had.

The source of heat was joined by another, at his chest, and the two sources pulsed him time with each other with a warmth he hadn't felt in…well, never. He couldn't remember a time when he felt like he was wrapped in something like this.

The heat continued to pulse consistently, leaving Sixer feel like he was floating in a quiet, warm dark that made him feel something that he hadn't felt before.

Or hadn't felt in…in a long time. He wasn't sure. He wasn't about to ask.

"Hnnn…."

 _"_ _You're gonna be okay, Sixer."_

Sixer felt his ears move at the voice. He felt he recognized it; he tried to open his eyes to see, but they felt so _heavy._

The heat source on his head rubbed through his hair. _"It's okay. Just rest."_

He felt something, and he fell back into the darkness, falling into a deep, all-encompassing rest that he hadn't reached before.

 **Time Break**

When Sixer awoke he felt tired, but…better. His stomach wasn't churning, but it didn't feel…empty. Well, not as empty as it could have been, but not full, either.

He also didn't feel cold.

He blinked his eyes open blearily, squinting at how bright the light was. He wasn't expecting that. He grunted and shifted back under the blankets, closing his eyes against the light. He made a noise that sounded like a mix between a grunt and a groan.

There came the sound of footsteps in the room, causing Sixer's ears to twitch. The sound of them was familiar. He pulled the blankets back slightly as the footsteps paused at the movement.

He found himself looking at his brother, but – no, this one had an eyepatch.

 _Stan,_ Sixer remembered sluggishly. _Crescent. Counterpart._

Stan looked at Sixer for a moment, expression unreadable. His hands were holding onto what looked like plastic bags of something in them.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Stan grunted.

Sixer blinked. His eyes felt heavy again. He sighed quietly and closed his eyes again.

He heard Stan's footsteps as he walked out of the room, and then nothing.

 **Time Break**

When Sixer woke again, he was able to blink his eyes open a little more easily. There was…something…that smelled good near him.

His gaze focused, and he saw the Guildmaster sitting on the floor a few feet away from him, writing something into a journal.

Sixer shifted slightly, and the Guildmaster looked up. Her furrowed brow relaxed some when she saw him looking at her.

"Hey," the Guildmaster said, quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

Sixer's stomach shifted, but not in the "I want to heave" sort of way.

"I…" He paused. "I believe I require food?"

Maria's shoulders relaxed. "Well, I know how to solve that." She reached over to the side and Sixer followed her movement, catching sight of a bowl. "You've been asleep for a while. Since you guys are different from normal humans, I think you'll get better faster than most people in your state are supposed to. Crescent was able to get up about an hour ago."

Sixer nodded a little.

"Do you have enough strength to sit up?" Maria looked at him curiously.

Sixer moved his arms, attempting to position his hands so that he could push himself up. He was lying on his side, so one arm was already partially under his body, but it felt weaker than the other. Likely because he had been lying on top of it.

He was able to get himself partially up before he lost the strength in his arms and fell back onto the couch with a grunt, ears drooping. He started to move again when the Guildmaster held up a hand.

"It's okay. Don't push yourself right now."

Sixer lowered himself back onto the couch as the Guildmaster brought the bowl up in both hands.

"We'll just do things a different way from how I would have liked," the Guildmaster said. She stirred the broth in the bowl with the spoon for a moment. "Okay?"

Sixer nodded quietly. He could see where this was going.

"Okay." The Guildmaster held up the spoon, and Sixer opened his mouth enough for the utensil to carry its cargo to its destination.

The broth was warm, and a little bit bland, but it was smooth going down his throat. His stomach didn't erupt in pain upon contact with it.

"We'll keep going until either you're not hungry or you don't think you can eat anymore for now, okay?"

Sixer nodded at the Guildmaster's cautious question. "Okay."


	6. Startling Connections

**You guys should find a part of this chapter familiar.**

 **Chapter 26/6 - Startling Connections**

"Hey, Maria."

The Guildmaster looked up from her journal and blinked when she saw Mizar poking her head into the living room. "Yeah?"

Sixer glanced up from the slice of toast he had been slowly eating. The Guildmaster had given them to him not too long ago and had been keeping an eye on him, just in case what had happened the morning before happened again. So far, that was not the case.

It…confused him, how she was refusing to leave him alone for long, even as she kept herself busy. He had been left alone to fend for himself before — much to others' amusement — so why was she staying near him and worrying over him instead of being amused?

"I'm calling a family meeting," Mizar said. "It's been a couple days since things happened, and Alcor and I think it'd be a good idea to talk things over and figure out what's happened so far and what we could do next."

The Guildmaster blinked at that, then looked over at Sixer, who was sitting in an armchair in a back corner of the room. She looked at him with an unreadable expression, then looked back at Mizar. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea." The journal and pen quickly disappeared under her jacket, and she rose from the couch. "Where's the meeting gonna be?"

"Alex said he wanted to do it here, so Journal and Andrew probably aren't gonna show up, but everyone else will be here."

"Will Mrs. Pines be?"

Sixer looked over at the question. He had yet to see this version of Alex's wife, and wasn't sure what her reaction would be when she met him.

"She works at the hospital in the next town over," Mizar explained. "That's probably why you haven't seen her yet. She knows what's going on though."

The Guildmaster blinked. "Ah. Okay then – I hope I get to meet her face to face soon. I'm surprised I haven't yet."

"I know, right? Meeting's gonna start in about five minutes; everyone should be over by then."

As soon as Mizar disappeared back through the door, Stanley and Crescent walked in, followed by Stanford, Dipper, and Mabel. And then came the rest of the families, followed by Mizar, Vash, and Knives, Vash's brother – the last of whom looked like he would rather be anywhere but here.

"I call this Pines Clan meeting to order!" Mizar announced as others found places to sit. Sixer remained in his back corner, finishing off nibbling on the last of his toast. "So, we've gotta talk about what just happened a few days ago and what we're gonna do about it. We should probably _also_ talk about our guests from another dimension and what's gonna happen in town now that they're here."

"Let's start with that," Stanley grunted. "You guys have been around for the last four days; what do you think of the town?"

"Well, the people here are pretty nice," Vash said.

"They don't seem to be too questioning," Knives added. "Considering what I have seen and been told live in the woods, this leads me to believe they believe _us_ to be magical creatures of some kind."

"They aren't far off," Stanford commented.

"…no, but I am glad they are leaving me alone as a result of that."

Vash nodded in agreement.

Sixer glanced at the Guildmaster as she nodded as well. She had an expression on her face that suggested she was thinking, but he wasn't able to tell what she was thinking about.

"I met with Wendy and her friends a couple days ago," the Guildmaster said. "They gave me a tour of the town — Blubbs thought that I might have been a high school student who was transferring in, but I told him otherwise. I'm probably going to have to head in with some form of identification to prove that I _have_ graduated from high school." She raised an eyebrow at Stanley.

"Give 'em a couple more days; they're still tryin' ta figure out what they're lookin' at," Stanley replied. "I mean, _I_ looked through there an' it looked like there was a lot of stuff that came outta science fiction, kid."

"Fair enough."

Sixer wasn't sure what they were talking about, but he didn't see it as something that he would need to say anything about. It wasn't his place.

"Does Blubbs know you're from another dimension, then?" Stanford asked.

"Yeah. I gave him copies of my final papers for the six degrees I have; the dates on those will be a pretty good indicator, considering that they're later in time than where we're at now."

The Fords in the room looked surprised at that — except for Sixer, whose expression didn't change. It took him a moment to remember that the Guildmaster was talking about college degrees.

"Which means they're gonna know about Cress an' the others soon enough," Stan commented. Ford, who was standing behind him, nodded quickly, looking nervous.

"Which is going to be difficult," Sphinx spoke up. "The mayor set up a Never Mind All That Act at the end of Weirdmageddon, apparently — in Stanford's timeline, at least. It's held true in this timeline so far, and I doubt it's going to be lifted very easily."

"Never Mind All That Act?" Stan raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"That was put in after Weirdmageddon," Dipper explained. "Mayor Tyler and the rest of the town don't like to talk or think about what happened in August two years ago, so they just…don't. At all."

"Which means that mentioning you-know-who is a bad idea in town unless Mayor Tyler has a loophole put in just in case there's an emergency." The Guildmaster paused. "Which, I hope he does, because otherwise I'm gonna be breaking that law several times over when we start getting their attention about what's coming. I get the reason why it was put in in the first place, but in this instance it's going to be more of a hassle to work around than we want or need it to be."

There were several nods of agreement from most of the Pines. Pine, Star, Crescent, and Sixer just looked either straight-faced or confused.

This wasn't information that Sixer was familiar with hearing. Never Mind All That Act? That must have been something instated after Cipher was defeated here.

The Guildmaster tapped a couple fingers on her chin. "I don't think it's a good idea to introduce them to the town yet. Vash, Knives, and me, certainly, but…I don't know about exposing them to the rest of the town all at once. Maybe just in small groups?"

"That would be better," Sphinx agreed immediately. "Especially as this is a group of people that, last they saw, were trapped in Cipher's Fearamid."

"And the people here are going to ask questions — they don't _remember_ Sixer's timeline like they do the rest of yours."

Sixer blinked. Remember?

"…yes, that would be a good point to bring up," Stanford muttered. "Soos and Wendy haven't seen them yet, at least, but I doubt that's going to last for long. I have no doubt they're going to notice we're having these meetings on days when the Shack isn't open and come and investigate, whether or not the high school is having classes."

"Classes are only gonna stop Wendy; Soos is somethin' else," Stanley spoke up. "He's runnin' my Shack right now, remember? He's gonna swing around here at some point after hours an' he's gonna find these guys an' want in on things. I'm surprised they haven't learned about 'em in the last week, what with how out of it they all got."

Soos and Wendy. The names were familiar. It took a second for Sixer to remember who exactly it was that Stanley was talking about.

Two members of the Zodiac. The…question mark and the ice bag. Now hanging as decorations in a Fearamid far from his current location.

"They'll probably learn about it in the next day or two now that you've said that," the Guildmaster said.

"I would not be surprised," Stanley replied dryly.

"Fiddleford said you told him at least some of the details of what happened when he came by yesterday." Stanford looked at the Guildmaster. "He seemed quite worried by what you'd told him and is already working on defensive weaponry that could keep Cipher at bay when he arrives next year."

The Guildmaster nodded. "Yeah, I told him enough to get the point across. I did hint that it was Cipher who had caused it to happen in the first place, though, so we can't repeat my explanation too well, I don't think."

"We'll figure somethin' out," Gargrunkle said from the doorway. The gargoyle was standing more outside than inside — his wings were spread, so it didn't look like he was going to be setting foot inside anytime soon. "Whether that means loopholes or whatever, we'll get the word out."

The Guildmaster's mouth became a straight line, but she didn't argue against Gargrunkle's words.

"I'm sure that won't be an issue," Sphinx commented. "Word puzzles are interesting ways to spend time." He looked over at the Guildmaster. "I noticed that you hadn't asked about the exact date and year in the last few days. Were you able to find that answer for yourself?"

The Guildmaster nodded. "Yeah; I found a satellite to connect to when I was out with Wendy. Kinda spaced out for a bit while they were talking about an old cabin in the woods that Wendy's dad owns but never lets them go to. I'm surprised it's 2014, considering how old some of the younger twins are. I would have thought it was 2013."

Sixer blinked. Those numbers…years? He wasn't used to them. Just another aspect of time that he was going to have to get used to.

"It's on account of Mizar's dimension," Stanford replied.

Mizar looked sheepish and rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah; everything just jumped forward a year when I got merged in."

The Guildmaster nodded. "This is going to be a real blast from the past for me, but I think that I'll be able to adapt. It's not going to be a problem."

"Um…"

Sphinx looked at Star as Sixer turned his head slightly to look in her direction.

"We…we'll have to tell them, right?" Star looked around the group nervously. "A-about who's coming."

"Eventually," Sphinx replied. "Considering the chaos that came about when he invaded the _first_ time, I should think that the townsfolk are going to want to be more prepared for a second apocalypse. We have to give them more time."

"I don' think tellin' 'em now about it would be a good idea," Stan spoke up. His usually-silent brother gripped Stan's arm with a wide-eyed look as Sixer watched. "I know, bro, but think – tellin' 'em now, with a _year_ between – it'll just make 'em all paranoid messes, ya know? I say we wait a bit longer, give 'em a bit of time ta get more used ta all those memory problems you were tellin' us about."

Memory?

"They've had three months," Stanford commented.

"And there are some people who still get thrown for a loop when they wake up in the morning and realize they aren't werewolves or vampires," Dipper spoke up suddenly. Tyrone nodded in agreement next to him. "I mean, _we've_ got people who are like that, sure, but they're not having memory identity crises."

The Guildmaster motioned to Dipper. "He's got a point there, but I think people have pretty much figured things out by now." A frown crossed her face. "…although, I bet that, if we could find a Sixer with fewer tails than he has now, the whole Weirdmageddon Round 2 thing won't be a problem."

That statement got her a number of blank looks.

Sixer blinked. What did the Guildmaster mean by that? Find a him with fewer tails?

The question tried to be asked, but Sixer instinctually pushed them down again.

"I'm going to try something," the Guildmaster announced casually, moving a couple steps into the center of the room.

Sixer's ears twitched at the statement, and he looked at her with a blank expression.

"What are you gonna do?" Mabel asked with a curious look.

"I want to see if I can rescue these guys earlier in their timeline." The Guildmaster cracked her knuckles. "If they can be rescued with less damage from that triangular beastie than they have now, they would definitely be better off."

Sixer blinked as she looked over at him. Earlier in the timeline?

"Are you suggesting that you can time travel?" Sphinx asked. Star, who was sitting next to him on the floor, looked nervous.

"People like me do that all the time traveling between dimensions, since the rate of time is different in each one." The Guildmaster made a slight waving motion, as though she could clear the doubt from the room. "If I get it right, I bet I can punch a hole through space and time in order to go back to some point in the past when they'd be faster to recover." She looked around the room. "Any objections to me trying?"

People like her…?

Stanford rose from the chair he was sitting in across the room from Sixer and pulled a blaster from under his trench coat. "I don't see why we can't attempt it, but you are going to need more weaponry than just what you have equipped."

"I can summon an army of allies who I am sure would _love_ to tear this guy to pieces." The Guildmaster grinned, but there was a dark glint of something in her eyes that offset the eagerness she was displaying. "There are a _lot_ of people out in the multiverse that would want a piece of Bill for what he's done." She looked around the room at the figures assembled there – Sixer and his family, as well as the counterparts who already lived in this dimension, and Vash and Knives, the Guildmaster's – apparently – two nephews.

"You guys ready to give this a shot?" the Guildmaster asked.

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Maple pulled a grappling hook out from under her sweater and held it up, prepared to fire it.

"I'm up for round 2." Stanley grinned and cracked his knuckles.

Sixer was confused. It had only been a few weeks since the Guildmaster had taken control. And she wanted to do that? Why?

The Guildmaster gave a thumbs-up, then snapped her fingers at the air in front of her.

What happened next was _not_ what Sixer had been expecting.

A bright crackle of blue lightning flew from the Guildmaster's fingertips, and a bright blue, circular, _stable_ portal appeared in the middle of the living room.

Sixer stiffened in his seat. There was something about this that was…oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what it was.

The Guildmaster started to step into the portal—only for her foot to collide with the circle of energy and not pass through.

"What in Primus…?" The Guildmaster frowned. Then her eyes widened sharply as the portal rippled. "Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me."

Maple started to lower her chosen weapon. "What is it?"

"This is a _window,_ not a _portal_ — something's keeping me from going into their past! That means it's a _fixed point in time,_ and I can't go back and _change_ any of it!" The Guildmaster clenched her right fist and slammed it into the circle of energy in front of her, causing it to ripple again as the blue glow faded and became something else.

It didn't take Sixer more than a second to recognize the walls and floor of the Fearamid's throne room. He could see a Cipher – likely the Cipher he had been bound to before the Guilmaster got involved. There was something else in view of the portal as well, but Sixer couldn't see what – or who – it was from where he was sitting.

The Guildmaster gritted her teeth and snarled through them; Sixer sank a little in his seat. That sort of sound the Mas – Cipher made usually meant that he was going to take his anger out on Sixer later. He got the feeling the Guildmaster might do the same.

"It was worth a shot," Stan offered. "Seemed like a good idea."

Stanford sighed and hid his blaster away on his person. "Indeed it was."

"There's still something I can do, though."

Sixer blinked at the Guildmaster's statement. He saw that her fists were still clenched in anger, but there was a grin on her face now. His ears flicked forward slightly.

"I've always wanted to see how Cipher would react to something like this."

The Guildmaster's grin widened wickedly as she took in a deep breath, then shouted into the open portal that led into the Nightmare Realm. "THREE ANGLES MAKES A NINCOMPOOP IGNORAMAGON!"

Sixer sat up ramrod straight as his eyes widened sharply. At the same time, the figures on the other side of the portal started to turn in order to find the source of the Guildmaster's voice, while the Pines stared at the Guildmaster in surprise and shock.

The Guildmaster stuck her tongue out. "Pbbbbbbth! HA!" Then with a flick of her wrist, the portal collapsed in on itself and disappeared from existence.

It left them sitting in a silent living room – but not for long.

"That was you?!" Crescent stared at the Guildmaster with wide eyes, jaw dropping in shock before a grin crossed his face. "Do you know how long I've been wonderin' who ta thank fer hearin' that particular name?"

Sixer's hands were clenched on the arm rests of his chair as the color swiftly drained from his face.

 _She just – why did – that was her?! That portal – how could she have –_

 _Oh. Oh no._

Sixer was _very_ quick to come to conclusions of what the creation of a portal meant.

"Maria, that was extremely reckless," Knives said disapprovingly.

"Like I was going to let an opportunity pass me by!" the Guildmaster retorted. "That eldritch monster's _lucky_ that this thing's a fixed point in time, or else I would have jumped in there and summoned the Guild and taken him on right then and there! It would have saved us a _lot_ of trouble in the long run, believe me!"

Star and Pine exchanged wide-eyed looks while Crescent's eyebrows shot even higher, half-impressed and half-startled.

At the same time, Sixer's tails curled around him more tightly as his ears flattened against his head, which lowered quickly. "D-do you realize what you've done?"

The Guildmaster turned at Sixer's choked question, her determined look fading into an expression of confusion. "What do you mean? Are you talking about the portal thing?" She paused. "Oh, yeah, you guys don't know – I completely forgot about that. It's okay, Sixer – I do that all the time. I'm a World Jumper; it's kinda what I do. I mean, sure I'm called the Fire Storm, but fire's not the only thing that I mess with."

The fur on Sixer's tails rose slowly as his fears were confirmed. He wasn't sure what the Guildmaster would do when she found out what he knew – and he hadn't informed her about it before she had done this. _"They_ arrived not long after this event and placed a bounty on your head. _They_ made a deal with _him."_

"A bounty?" Vash repeated.

"They who, Sixer?" The Guildmaster's expression shifted over to a frown. She took a few steps closer to Sixer.

He sank down into the chair, expecting to be beaten as soon as he told her. Withholding information of any sort couldn't have been a good thing. "The - the Dark Arms." Sixer closed his eyes tightly, expecting a near-murderous response from the Guildmaster that would end in her taking her anger out on him.

The room went completely silent; Sixer could feel the tension in the air as he waited.

"Did they say anything about me thwarting any plan of theirs?"

Sixer's ears rose a little; the Guildmaster was speaking…softly? But there was a serious tone in it as well – she must be holding her anger back until she had all the information she could concerning the matter.

He nodded. "Yes."

"Did they mention the Continuum Shift by name?"

Sixer nodded again. "Yes."

"You know about the cosmic reset button?" one of Sixer's counterparts asked in surprise. He guessed it was Stanford, since the voice didn't have an underlying growl to it, and he didn't have a stutter in his voice either.

 _That_ phrase was familiar; the Mas – _Cipher_ had used that.

"Yeah," the Guildmaster replied. "I know how to hit it – I did it when the Dark Arms made a few moves the multiverse didn't like." Ford could hear her clenching her teeth. She let out a sigh through her nose. "It's only a last resort for me, though, and I doubt that hitting it now would be of much help to Sixer and the others." There was a pause for a moment, and then the Guildmaster said, softly, "Sixer, thank you for telling me about this."

 _Thank you?_

Sixer cracked his eyes open a little, confused by the Guildmaster's word choice. He focused on her face and saw that…there was no anger there. Only…that strange expression again, which still didn't feel right directed at him. "You-you're not mad?"

"Mad?" The Guildmaster shook her head, then frowned, but there was no malice or anger in her gaze. "I'm not mad at _you_ if that's what you're suggesting. You didn't know who exactly I was to them; it's not your fault."

Sixer found it ridiculous that the Guildmaster was just brushing this off like nothing. _He_ certainly wouldn't have.

Sixer saw Stanford look at him with a worried expression. "Maria, something tells me this is an instinctive response."

Sixer's tails twitched as the Guildmaster's brow furrowed even deeper, and she sighed and shook her head.

"Sixer, I'm not going to take my anger at the Dark Arms out on you," she said. "It wouldn't be right, and it wouldn't be healthy for either of us." She looked at him, mouth pressed into a straight line. "I don't do that sort of thing, and I don't ever intend to. You have my word on that."

Sixer blinked, disbelieving. A bitter laugh echoed at the back of his mind at the Guildmaster's words – she wasn't bound to her word like he was; she could go back on it at any point.

And yet…and yet…

He had only been under her power for a short time and he already saw how different she was from his previous master. Instead of having him move and follow her orders when he was sick on his feet, she _helped_ him heal instead. Instead of having him wait on her hand and foot, it was _the other way around._

Instead of using every means she had to get what she wanted, she assisted others.

She had vowed to give them back their freedom as best as she could, and she had yet to do so, but…some small part of him was starting to wonder if she actually could.

It was drowned out by everything else in his mind, but that little voice was there, now.

The Guildmaster held out a hand, jolting Sixer out of his thoughts and causing him to flinch back, expecting a slap to the face. The Guildmaster winced at his reaction, then kept going forward and placed her hand on his shoulder.

A pulse of warmth – heat, yes, but it felt like there was something else with it as well – spread out from the point of contact and into Sixer, causing him to stiffen in surprise at it as he looked at the Guildmaster in wary confusion.

"I am not like Cipher," the Guildmaster said evenly. "You're safe here, Sixer. I promise."

Sixer blinked, thrown off by the Guildmaster's words even as his body relaxed instinctively into the warmth that she was pressing into him. This warmth…it was familiar – this was the same warmth he'd felt when he had not been feeling himself. His mind was still…uncertain, of her, and of what it was that she was capable of. But there were some things that were proving her words true. The Guildmaster did not create destruction as his previous master had, and she did not have his temper.

That, and she was….not angered with him.

He had known a word that could have described such a thing, once, but it escaped him now.

Sixer sighed and let his body relax completely. The Guildmaster would take some more time yet to get used to, it seemed.

The Guildmaster looked at Sixer with that same furrowed-brow expression that she always seemed to have when she was looking at him. He looked up at her with half-closed, relaxed eyes, the warmth she was releasing keeping his body lax. After a moment, she removed her hand from his shoulder, and the heat faded after a moment.

"Who are the Dark Arms?" Tyrone spoke up. "How dangerous are they?"

"Very dangerous." The Guildmaster glanced at Sixer, who met her gaze for a moment before looking away. "They're something from my past that I'd thought had died a long time ago. Guess I'm not so lucky." She looked away from Sixer. "I don't think this is gonna change anything about Weirdmageddon."

"If he is aware that we rescued—"

"He _is,_ and I doubt that Cipher's gonna let an alien race that _failed_ to create a new dimension get involved in what he does." The Guildmaster shook her head as she cut Sphinx off. "That's what the Continuum Shift was used for. If anything, they're going to come around and see if they can catch me after the apocalypse starts, if he decides to let them know. I'll worry about the Dark Arms; they're _my_ problem. Let's just focus on helping the Pines we've rescued for now."

Sixer could not follow the Guildmaster's train of thought very well. It didn't make any sense.

Then again, it was likely that she wasn't intending to. He wasn't about to question it.

"We'll leave them off the table for now," Stanford said. "But if they start to become a problem, we're taking about it again before they _do_."

"We don't want to end up getting caught by surprise if they do show up," Dipper added.

The Guildmaster nodded. "Fair enough."


	7. Local Wildlife

**Chapter 7 - Local Wildlife**

Sixer was waiting for the Guildmaster to tell him to do something when the door leading out to the porch was slammed open and a redheaded young woman wearing flannel walked inside with purpose.

Sixer very quickly averted his gaze as the Guildmaster – who had been writing in a journal with a globe on the cover – looked up at the sound.

"Wendy!" The Guildmaster closed the journal and rose to her feet. "I thought you were gonna be over at the Shack all day with Soos."

"Well, I _was,_ but then Sphinx showed up with a little girl who looked like she'd seen _war_ and he told me about what's going on." The redhead – Wendy, apparently – looked over in Sixer's direction, but he didn't meet her gaze. "That's him, then?"

"…yeah. That's Sixer."

Sixer's ears turned in the Guildmaster's direction, and he lifted his head slightly.

And caught sight of a familiar, startled expression on Wendy's face.

"If he's like this – if his whole family's like this – what about the rest of his Gravity Falls?" Wendy turned and looked at the Guildmaster with an angered expression that had something else to it.

Something in Sixer might have understood what it was – once – but the slight ache in his chest told him to not try and think about it.

"If _he's_ like this, what about—"

"Sixer?"

Sixer looked up as the Guildmaster cut Wendy off.

"We only saw you four pop in, and I haven't sensed any more rifts opening up," the Guildmaster said. "Did…did Cipher do to everyone else what he did to you?"

Sixer shook his head slowly. "No, Guildmaster."

Wendy's expression shifted. "That's not a Dr. Pines."

The Guildmaster sighed as she looked at Wendy. "He's a shade of who he used to be." She focused on Sixer again. "What did happen to them?"

"The populace of Gravity Falls have been collected to form his throne," Sixer replied. "The only exception being the members of the Zodiac, six of whom were transformed into tapestries."

"And he hasn't done anything with them?"

Sixer shook his head. "He has…allowed them to become sentient, sometimes. But he has not changed them physically."

Wendy focused on Sixer. "When you say 'become sentient,' how can you tell?"

Sixer didn't shift his gaze away from the Guildmaster.

"Answer her, Sixer," the Guildmaster said in a dejected tone.

Sixer closed his eyes for a moment, thinking back. "The tapestries have allowed those trapped in them to move and take on different appearances in response to what we have done. The – _he_ grew bored with allowing them to do so after some time, and instead has left them with expressions of horror."

Wendy swallowed audibly. "I…think I remember becoming that? But it all feels like a nightmare that I'd rather not think about. Or can't think clearly about."

Sixer didn't respond. The Guildmaster winced. Why, he didn't feel like asking. It didn't feel like a question he was allowed to ask.

Wendy looked at the Guildmaster. "If he's like this _,_ he needs a therapist or _something._ He can't just stay cooped up in here and not talk to people forever."

"The problem here isn't that I _want_ him to stay here," the Guildmaster replied. "It's how people are gonna _react._ The reason he's like this is because he _lost_. Cipher's coming here at the end of next summer, and he _turned_ Sixer into this." She motioned to him as Wendy's eyes widened. "People aren't gonna take too kindly to the fact that he and his family are basically Cipher beacons right now."

"…geez, yeah, no," Wendy looked uneasy. "People are gonna find out either way, though. I mean, Vash and Knives have been getting a _lot_ of attention, so it's only a matter of time before Mayor Tyler comes out to say hi to you guys and find out what's really going on."

The Guildmaster sighed. "I don't doubt it. How did Soos take the news?"

"He's probably gonna learn it in fifteen minutes. Sphinx came in after he'd started one of his tours. He's probably gonna hand the reins over to Stanley as soon as he sees that kid." Wendy shook her head. "She shouldn't have that look on her face."

"None of them should." The Guildmaster looked at Sixer, who didn't meet her gaze. "Cipher did something terrible to all of them, and right now, Crescent's the only one who is acting like he normally does. But that's it – he's _acting._ Stanley said that he isn't up to snuff yet, either."

Wendy groaned and ran a hand through her hair, pushing back a few stray locks. "Well, _this_ just keeps getting better and better." Her gaze moved over to Sixer, then moved away after a moment. "So, uh…therapist? I bet I could find someone in town."

"Who isn't going to freak when they find out that Cipher tore him apart?" the Guildmaster responded. "And is going to be able to handle whatever dark chaos lies in his past as a result?"

Wendy opened her mouth, then shut it again. After a half-minute of her frowning, ticking off fingers, and murmuring names to herself, she finally looked at the Guildmaster and Sixer and said, "I think the Multibear might be able to help, but I'll have to see. Dipper's got more pull with him than I do."

"Do what you can," the Guildmaster said. "I'm not about to ask much more than that right now."

Wendy nodded, then spared one more glance at Sixer. "And get him outside for some fresh air, will ya? He looks way too pasty." With that, she ducked out of the house.

The Guildmaster watched Wendy leave, then looked at Sixer with a slight frown. He was starting to get better at figuring out what her mood was, unlike how difficult it had been to prepare himself for what Cipher might have done with him.

"Come on, Sixer." The Guildmaster motioned for Sixer to follow her, and she started out of the house. He rose from his chair and quickly followed after her.

"I need something to do to keep busy, and right now there isn't anyone to fight," the Guildmaster said as they walked into the clearing. "And leaving you to sit around and do nothing all day wouldn't be a good idea."

Something to keep busy? Sixer blinked. If that was her intention, then it must involve him somehow

They walked to the edge of the clearing on the opposite side of the driveway and entered the woods.

"I've got a few things from another dimension that I could plant and make a garden out of," the Guildmaster explained as they moved through the woods. "Just have to find a large enough clearing that could work and keep out of the way of most other people…."

The Guildmaster meandered through the forest with Sixer following behind her. The passed through a number of small clearings, but they didn't seem to be to the Guildmaster's liking. They stopped after a few minutes when they entered a substantially larger clearing.

"This _looks_ like it could work," the Guildmaster commented. "I just hope that I don't get in anyone's way if I start planting things here." She reached under her jacket and pulled out a worn, orange backpack with straps that looked like they were going to fall off at any moment. She placed it on the ground next to her and looked around. "Let's see…if I was going to make a small orchard for Berries, how would I want them arranged…."

The bushes nearby rustled, causing the Guildmaster and Sixer to both look in the direction of the sound. Something chittered on the other side of the bushes, then scrambled deeper into the woods.

"Hm." The Guildmaster frowned. "Gnomes, maybe? Eh, I'll look into it later — we'll probably run into each other eventually." She reached under her jacket again and very, _very_ carefully pulled out a long pole with a flat blade at the end of it. It took a moment for Sixer to recognize it as a piece of simple farming equipment. "I don't think the forest's gonna mind if I give it a few more trees with a few more strange fruits."

Strange fruits? The Guildmaster was considering bringing vegetation from other dimensions here?

The Guildmaster took the tool she had pulled from what Sixer assumed was her subspace, and she started hacking at the ground. After a few seconds of doing this, she paused, then looked at him. "Hey, Sixer? That backpack has a number of berries in it that I'm using as a seed crop. Could you take them out and arrange them by color or scent? The pink and sweet ones go together, and the blue with dry, the green with bitter, the red with spicy, and the yellow with sour. Some of them are going to be mixes of colors and scents — if that's the case, you can set those aside if you don't know where they'd go, and I'll figure it out. Okay?"

Sixer nodded, then walked over to the backpack and knelt down next to it. He unzipped the largest pocket as the Guildmaster continued to hack away at the dirt.

The inside was filled with strange, colorful fruits that looked both familiar and unfamiliar. He reached in and grabbed the first berry that was sitting on top — one that the Guildmaster had given to him to eat a few days ago.

 _Sitrus._ A yellow fruit. He set it aside and reached in for the next one.

A blue fruit about the shape and size of an orange. He set it aside in a different place.

The next berry he grabbed was _brown._ He stared at it with a blank expression, then set that one aside in a different place. The Guildmaster had said that if he couldn't tell, he could leave it up to her to decide where it went. This one didn't fit into any of the categories he'd been given.

Settling into a rhythm now, Sixer reached in and expected each berry for a couple seconds before he placed it in it corresponding pile. Little round berry, bright red — large, circular yellow berry with a hard shell — a green berry that looked like a number of grapes fused together —

"Hey, Sixer?"

Sixer looked up, part-way through putting a black and white berry that looked like a question mark to one side. "Yes, Guildmaster?"

The Guildmaster was leaning against the farming tool, looking at him with a curious expression. She was in the middle of digging a second trough through the ground. "You said the Dark Arms made a deal with him, right? Were you there for it?"

She…she wanted to know? He nodded a little.

"Do you remember what they offered in return for the bounty on my head?"

"A favor," Sixer replied. He thought for a moment. "They…also asked for the knowledge of our current state."

The Guildmaster's eyes widened, and she swallowed visibly. "They want to pull the same thing as last time. Oh, _Primus."_

Sixer blinked. Last time?

The Guildmaster drummed her fingers against the pole of the tool. "The Dark Arms kidnapped me and used me as a part of a plan to force a number of dimensions together. They'd destroyed their own in the process of taking it over and wanted a new one, but they didn't just want _one_ new dimension. So they thought a World Jumper —" She motioned to herself "—would be able to make it happen. So they caught me, and…they used me. I wasn't able to escape until my brother knocked me over the head." She chuckled weakly.

The Guildmaster had been used? He found that hard to comprehend. The one who had control over his actions had once been controlled herself.

"I managed to undo the damage…after a while. But not before they tried to get me back." The Guildmaster's grip tightened on the pole; the wood creaked under her grip. "The Continuum Shift that I set off was what fixed everything. It caused the dimensions — the ones that could be salvaged — to become reset. I had thought that would have taken the Dark Arms with it, but…apparently not. But they're not here yet. We still have time."

The wood cracked in the Guildmaster's grip; the sound was enough to make the Guildmaster shift her attention and loosen her grip on the pole. She shook her head. "We still have time. And we still have things to do."

With that, she went back to digging into the earth with a renewed vigor, leaving Sixer mentally reeling. He tried not to think about it — it wasn't something that he needed to formulate an opinion for — but his thoughts didn't listen.

The Guildmaster hadn't been angry when he had told her about the Dark Arms before. She had been _scared._ That was an emotion he had not seen on Cipher, but one he had seen on the people that they had gone after across dimensions. His Master had never shown even the slightest inclination that he _could_ be scared of something or someone.

And the Guildmaster _was._

He considered that as he continued to separate the berries — red, blue, green, yellow, pink, miscellaneous. The Guildmaster had more weaknesses than Cipher did. At least, more weaknesses _known._ It took him a moment to remember what the weaknesses of a Vulpix were — water and earth — and apparently, she could have control of herself taken from her as well. And according to her, it had happened once before.

At least once, something at the back of his mind suggested.

When he finished sorting through the berries, the Guildmaster was still in the process of working the earth for whatever her goal happened to be. So he sat and watched — and a part of him asked why she didn't ask him to take over.

But then he remembered how she cooked him breakfast every morning, instead of the other way around, and he remained where he was. If the Guildmaster required assistance from him, then the Guildmaster would ask for it.

The Guildmaster eventually completed the digging of the troughs and looked over the farming tool. The pole was cracking and splintering, and the metal blade on the end was bent and flattened from the force she had been using. "Looks like I'm going to have to get a new one. Maybe I can talk Fiddleford into making something simple…or I could just get one on my own later."

The Guildmaster shrugged, then made her way across the clearing to Sixer, who was sitting next to the open backpack and neatly arranged piles of berries. He watched her approach, expecting that she would tell him to do something in a moment.

"All right, now that the harder bit's done, it's time to plant these." The Guildmaster came to a stop a few feet away from Sixer. "Five to a row, except for the one at the far end over there — that one's getting six." The Guildmaster nodded back to the last row of overturned dirt. "Are you up to helping me plant these berries?"

"If that is what you require me for, Guildmaster."

"It will make the work go by faster." The Guildmaster held out a hand, motioning for Sixer to take it. After a moment, he did so, and she pulled him to his feet. "You can start on this end with the red berries; I'll take the miscellaneous ones over to the other end and work my way over in this direction. If you run out of reds, grab pink next, then yellow, green, and blue. I'll work backwards through that order. Don't forget to cover the berries in the dirt after you've dropped them in the trenches."

Sixer nodded, then knelt down and started to gather the red berries in his arms. The Guildmaster, true to her word, grabbed the berries that didn't fit in with any of the colors and made her way over to the far end of the clearing, where she started working her way through planting them.

Sixer mimicked her, dropping five berries to a row and then covering them up afterwards with the dirt thrown to the sides of the trenches. The two of them worked their way to the middle of the clearing, with Sixer planting the last of the yellow as the Guildmaster wrapped up with the green.

"There we go." The Guildmaster dusted the dirt off her hands and put her hands on her hips. "I don't know how long it's going to take for them to sprout, considering that it's August and berry plants usually don't take to cold weather very well, but I'm looking forward to seeing if I can get them to start growing when the weather warms up. So I won't have to worry about watering them today…."

The Guildmaster frowned, then started walking around Sixer, swinging her arms. "What to do, what to do…" She looked over at him, and Sixer prepared himself for an order.

Something in the bushes snorted, and one of Sixer's ears flicked in its direction.

The Guildmaster stiffened in response. "What is it?"

Sixer's brow furrowed. "Something is—"

And that's when a large, lumbering figure stepped through the bushes, multiple bear heads looking in all directions before they focused on the Guildmaster and Sixer.

The Guildmaster sucked in a breath. Sixer, taking this as a possibility that she could go on the attack at any moment, started to move in preparation, only for the Guildmaster to hold an arm up in front of him. He looked at her, only for her to shake her head.

"I think he's just here to investigate," the Guildmaster said. "It's okay. I don't consider the Multibear an enemy."

The creature's name was Multibear?

One of the bear heads looked at her sharply at that. "You know of me? But I do not know you."

The Guildmaster stepped forward. "I'm Maria, a World Jumper from another dimension. I brought home a Stan and a Ford who had been missing from their family this summer — Tyrone and Maple's grunkles."

The Multibear's eyes lit up. "Ah, yes. Tyrone had expressed his unhappiness at his absent grunkles. It is good that you were able to return them." He looked over at Sixer and frowned. "This one does not smell familiar. He smells of chaos."

Sixer kept his gaze with the bear's eyes for a moment before looking back to the Guildmaster. He saw her wince as he did so.

"Unfortunately, that's what his dimension has fallen into. I think that Cipher's the one who caused the four Gravity Fallses to merge together in the first place — it's something similar to what I've…seen before…." The Guildmaster trailed off, frowning. "Sixer, I think I've figured out that _favor_ that Cipher said he wanted the Dark Arms to get involved in. He used their knowledge of dimensions to get these ones merged together. Man, he really _is_ greedy for another Gravity Falls."

Sixer's gaze shifted away from the Guildmaster and the Multibear. The favor that had been asked for in trade? Perhaps. If the Guildmaster was now involved in the events taking place here, it seemed likely that Cipher would call in owed favors now.

The Multibear took a couple paw steps forward, frowning. "Are you all right?"

Sixer didn't answer.

"I'm afraid that Sixer isn't quite himself," the Guildmaster said worriedly. "His Cipher — the one that likely merged the Fallses together and destroyed his dimension — turned his family into puppets under his command. They arrived here through a rift a few days ago."

"That dreaded crack of energy?" the Multibear said with surprise. "If he came from _that,_ then he's a danger to—"

"Not as much as you might think," the Guildmaster replied. She swallowed when all the Multibear's heads looked at her. "We — that is, myself, Stanley, Sphinx, and Mizar — rescued Sixer and his family from Cipher's control. He _is_ still arriving at the end of next summer as far as I'm aware, but he won't be able to use the Pines in his nefarious schemes. Problem is, they…they aren't themselves. Sixer least of all. They need time to recover and rest from everything that's happened, but if Cipher's coming in a _year_ …they don't have much time."

The Multibear looked at the Guildmaster with an expression that Sixer couldn't read. Then he looked over at Sixer. "What say you, then?"

Sixer immediately looked at Maria for a suggestion.

The Guildmaster closed her eyes and sighed. "I can't feed you words for this, Sixer, if that's what you're expecting me to do. He's asking for your opinion and side of the story. Are you capable of giving him that?"

Sixer's mental processes — what remained of them — screeched to a halt as he started at her with a wide-eyed expression.

She had asked him to _what?_

There were no specifics in her order — she hadn't told him what he could or couldn't say, what sort of opinion he _should_ have about the events that had taken place recently —

It left him feeling — feeling —

Flabbergasted? _Was_ that even a word?

The Guildmaster sighed. One of the Multibear's heads made a confused sound.

"Come on, Sixer. You can do this."

"Wh-what would you _have_ me say, Guildmaster?" Sixer responded. "Am I required to speak of _everything_ that happened to—"

"Primus, no!" The Guildmaster threw her hands in the air. "Your personal opinion on current events would be enough, Sixer!"

Sixer shut his mouth, blinking in surprise. It took him a moment to remember that _current_ meant present events. Was the Guildmaster talking about meeting the Multibear or the events of the last few days?

The Multibear held up a paw. "I have heard enough. _Clearly,_ events have taken place that have changed this Stanford Pines' way of thinking drastically. When Wendy approached my cave and informed me that a disaster was going to occur and that a family involved had become mentally scarred in some capacity, I had my doubts concerning the severity of it. But now that I have seen a Stanford Pines — known for being _very_ outspoken in his beliefs and opinions — ask _another_ for what he should say, I can see that she was not exaggerating. I see what she meant in them requiring therapy. But I am not sure where she got the idea that I might be able to offer such services."

"I think she said something about Dipper when I talked to her earlier," the Guildmaster replied.

"Ah. Yes, he does like to speak with me whenever he becomes troubled. But this—" The Multibear motioned to Sixer, who was looking back and forth between them and keeping his expression blank "—is another matter entirely. Is is safe to assume that this is Cipher's work?"

The Guildmaster nodded. "He took their willpower from them. Sixer is tied to me, his brother Crescent is tied to Stanley, Star is tied to Sphinx, and Pine is tied to Mizar. From what I've seen the last few days, we've basically had to tell them to do things in order to get them to do them. That's what I've had to do when getting Sixer up and giving him breakfast every morning."

"Tied to? That is an interesting choice of words."

"You didn't see the Primus-damned _chains_ that he was wearing in the mindscape when I beat Cipher out of it," the Guildmaster replied. "They turned into something else and pierced through my fingers. This Cipher likes being a Primus-damned _puppet master_ and I _hate_ it."

Sixer's ears flicked back a little. The Guildmaster hated her position?

A part of him suggested that might be because of what the Dark Arms had done to her in using her for their own means.

The Multibear rumbled. "I will do what we can in order to help them recover, if Mizar's family has not already started that process. They do seem to have…that sort of _way_ about them."

"I haven't met them, but I believe you," the Guildmaster replied.

The Multibear nodded. "I will offer my counsel if you have need of it. Considering the situation as it stands, that might be required. My suggestion — for now — would be to give him a few days to learn how to work with you. It seems to me that neither one of you are used to how the other operates yet, and being in sync might make his mental state improve more quickly."

The Guildmaster paused, then nodded slowly. Sixer watched her, an expectant expression on his face.

"In the meantime, what exactly are you attempting to accomplish here?" the Multibear continued.

The question caused the Guildmaster's attention to shift — it seemed she had been thinking. "Oh, this? I'm creating a garden with berries from another dimension — they're excellent natural medicines that I know how to work with. They probably won't be growing for a while yet, though, since it's near the end of summer and the weather's gonna be too cold for newly growing things in a few months."

The Multibear bent down and sniffed at one of the trenches. He hummed, then rose to his full height. "We shall see. They may not pay much attention to the climate, you know."

"That is true," the Guildmaster conceded. "And if that's the case, I'll probably be coming out her daily with Sixer to make sure that everything's going smoothly."

She was going to bring him here daily? Was this to ensure that he had something to do or to assist her?

"You will be getting attention from the other creatures in the forest for this."

The Guildmaster shook her head at the Multibear's warning. "I know, and that's fine. So long as I can get at least half of the crop each of the trees produce, the rest of the berries are free game for interested creatures. Some of the berries do make really good jams. Others are good in salsas."

The bear made a growling noise. "The forest will keep that in mind for the first crop that is ready to be harvested. I shall leave you to your work, then." With that, he retreated back into the trees.

The Guildmaster watched him go, then looked at Sixer, who eyed her in return with an expectant — but cautious — expression. "Come on; let's head back to the Shack. We can start to sort out what the Multibear suggested tomorrow."

Sixer gave a small nod. "If that's what you intend, Guildmaster."


	8. Testing Limits

**I'm writing chapter 24 now. There's a total of 12 chapters left uncompleted, but ch 24 isn't getting posted until October unless something happens. :3**

 **Chapter 8 – Testing Limits**

Sixer woke up the next morning to the sound of something being dragged into the living room. His ears turned in the direction of the sound, trying to identify it.

When he couldn't, he opened his eyes in order to see where the sound was coming from.

Two men stopped short and stared at him. They were dragging a large, white rectangle of something that Sixer didn't recognize.

"Uh…hey, Alex? What's up with this guy on the couch?"

"That's Uncle Sixer," Alex replied from the doorway. "Just ignore him."

"Easier said than done when his eyes look like that," one of the men muttered. The other hit him upside the head with an open palm.

"The sooner we get this job done the better," the second said. "Come on; we gotta get these mattresses upstairs."

"R-right."

The two men got to dragging the whatever-it-was out of the living room and up the stairs. Sixer watched them go before he pushed himself up to a sitting position on the couch. His tails curled around him, three on each side, as he waited for the Guildmaster.

The men passed by with three more mattresses, and every time they looked at him with uneasy expressions. The Guildmaster only stepped up to the house when the last mattress was taken upstairs.

"These are the beds you were talking about a few days ago?" the Guildmaster asked as she reached the porch.

"Yes, that's right; they just brought the last one in." Alex paused. "Sixer's awake. He's been sitting on the couch watching them, and it's…unnerved them a bit."

Sixer saw the Guildmaster peer into the house out of the corner of his eye, looking around Alex. She stepped into the house a moment later, disappearing into the kitchen as she spoke.

"We're gonna be heading out to a spot near the late in a bit. Sixer's got _some_ fire power, but I want to figure out _how much."_

"And you're doing it near a body of water in he middle of one of our drier seasons."

"A dunk in the lake never hurt anybody," the Guildmaster replied as the last mattress disappeared upstairs. "Certainly not me." She paused. "Is that—"

"I made a little extra this morning. His stomach _has_ to be settled enough for it by now."

Sixer blinked. He was still in the process of absorbing what the Guildmaster had said about testing his fire ability. She wanted to test him? He wasn't going to argue against that decision.

"I was wondering," the Guildmaster said. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me, thank my wife," Alex replied. "She suggested that we start getting him on a more meat-based diet as soon as possible."

"She's seen him?"

"Only when he's been asleep." Alex paused. "She doesn't like the situation he's in. Or Star and Pine."

"I'm not surprised."

Sixer's ear twitched as the sound of the toaster finishing came from the kitchen.

"The Multibear and Crescent have both given me at least _some_ insight into what I could do in order to get him to open up a bit and adjust to how things are now, but it's gonna take a while before I'll start to see any improvement, I think."

The Guildmaster appeared in the doorway leading out of the kitchen and frowned at Sixer; he sat up straighter in response. He noticed a moment later that she was carrying a plate with toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs on it.

"I just hope that we'll see at least a little bit of improvement before Cipher swoops in next year." The Guildmaster walked over to Sixer and held out the plate. He blinked, took it, then started eating the meal.

The bacon and eggs tasted better than he had been expecting them to. His stomach didn't rebel against them after he swallowed, either. It seemed that Alex and the Guildmaster were right in giving him these things.

"You're actively concerned about him, and I think that's going to work in your favor," Alex said from the kitchen. "Just be careful you don't coddle him too much."

"I've only been in this situation for what, five, six days?" The Guildmaster looked over at him. "It's gonna take me a bit to figure out what is pushing too far and what isn't. Right now it's just…we have to get used to each other first."

"So how do you plan on doing that?"

"Do things the old fashioned way."

Sixer looked up as the Guildmaster looked over.

"I'm gonna head out to the lake with Sixer and figure out how much he knows about his own firepower. A little sparring can go a long way in showing who you really are."

Sparring? The Guildmaster was going to spar against _him?_

 _…_ He wasn't sure that was a very good idea, but then again, she _was_ in control of his actions. If she wished to spar against him, he wouldn't argue.

The Guildmaster waited until he finished his breakfast before the two stepped out into the clearing.

"Okay, now to just figure out how to get to the lake…" The Guildmaster frowned in thought.

"You wanna go to the lake?"

Sixer's ears flicked, and he turned his head. A Mabel trotted up to them, a unicorn horn on her head and with a horse's body from the waist down. Right behind her was her brother, but he had the lower half of a deer fawn. His ears were of the same make and he had more pronounced freckles across his face.

Deerper and…Mabelcorn, was it? Right; these two were a part of the "Monster Falls" timeline the Guildmaster told him about.

"Yeah," the Guildmaster replied. She frowned. "Stanley said that Dipper and Mabel were at orientation this morning for school; why aren't you two—"

"We already got that taken care of," Mabelcorn replied. "Dip-dop just doesn't like loud noises, so we came back early."

Deerper nodded.

"Oh; gotcha." Maria nodded. "So you guys know a way to the lake then?"

"Yeah! We could show you too, if you wanted — there's a spot we know about that no one else goes to." Mabelcorn looked at Deerper. "You know the spot better than I do; you wanna lead the way?"

"Yeah, sure; that won't be a problem." Deerper motioned for them to follow him, then trotted off towards the woods. Mabelcorn followed after him immediately.

The Guildmaster motioned for Sixer to follow her, and he fell into step behind her as the two of them followed the children.

Mabelcorn fell back behind them as they entered the treeline, glancing back over her shoulder as the clearing disappeared behind them. Sixer didn't question her decision to become a rear guard. He wasn't in a position to.

"Okay, so there's a spot on the lake out here that's usually pretty isolated from everyone else." Deerper looked around as he walked, ears swiveling back and forth as he went. "Since it's almost the last day of summer, everyone's enjoying the water at the last minute — both here and back at the public pool."

"I'm not surprised; it's good weather out here." The Guildmaster breathed in through her nose. "A bit colder than I'm used to, but I've been living on a desert planet for the last century."

So the Guildmaster was used to another environment. A desert.

"I can't imagine living in a place like that," Mabelcorn piped up. She pranced around to trot next to the Guildmaster. "I like trees and plants and things. Not having them sounds _terrible._ "

"Yeah," Deerper agreed. He paused for a second, then stepped over a root carefully before he kept going. The Guildmaster started to keep an eye on where she was walking; Sixer followed suit.

"I-I'd be terrified of not having any places to hide. And Vash and Knives said there were giant _worm_ predators." The cervitaur shuddered.

The Guildmaster nodded. "Yeah, the sandworms…they didn't live in the area that we did, but I have seen them. I don't blame you for not wanting to be near them."

Deerper hummed nervously in agreement. One of his ears flicked up. "Mabel, there's—"

"Yeah, the gnomes have been following us for a bit." Mabelcorn frowned at the trees on the right and behind the group. "I think they're curious about Grunkle Sixer." She looked up at Sixer, unicorn tail swishing back and forth.

Sixer didn't return her gaze. He could barely remember the gnomes. He hadn't seen them since Weirdmageddon had overtaken his world.

The Guildmaster considered that, frowning. "Well, he's not a Ford they remember, so I guess they would be curious about that." She looked at Sixer, who looked back at her for a moment before moving his gaze to his feet. "How he's acting might make them curious, too. At this rate, they may end up getting introduced to the town sooner rather than later."

Deerper made a worried sort of noise, then came to a stop as the trees thinned out. "Here we are. We're in a secluded area near the falls, so — so everyone else down by the lake shouldn't see you unless you make a lot of noise."

The Guildmaster nodded, then moved out from the trees into the clearing to have a look around herself. Sixer took at step out of the trees after her, but he didn't move further than that.

The clearing was large enough to allow for a few maneuvers. Trees on one side, the ground ended on the other. There was a view of the lake out in that direction — the falls to the right, the shore a little to the left. It was swarming with people.

People who Sixer knew in his other dimension as parts of a stone throne of writhing agony.

"This is great!" the Guildmaster turned and looked at Sixer as Deerper and Mabelcorn wandered away from the two of them, looking for a good place to lie down away from the two of them. "Okay, Sixer. I want you to hit me directly with your definition of a basic fire attack."

Sixer blinked at that. His hands twitched. "Is that…" He hesitated. "…wise, Guildmaster?"

She was asking him to _hit her._ He didn't think that he wanted to see what would happen if one of those strikes angered her in any way.

"I'll absorb it the same way that I absorbed it before," the Guildmaster replied. "All it'll do for me is give me an energy boost. I'll be okay."

Sixer considered. The Guildmaster _did_ have a point in that she was capable of handling herself. She had absorbed his initial attack against her, before she had taken him under her control. That was likely to not have changed.

He shifted his feet, falling into a familiar stance. He raised his hands, curling his fingers in as he summoned his inner power.

Red-orange fire exploded across his hands and licked up to his elbowed seconds before it was all siphoned off him in a blast-fire attack on the Guildmaster, aimed at her torso and face.

Deeper bleated loudly in one part of the clearing.

The Guildmaster raised her arms over her face, preventing the fire from hitting her directly there. The fire washed over her for a moment, then was suddenly sucked into her form.

"Holy mackerel!" the Guildmaster yelped as she lowered her arms. "That's that's your _basic_ attack, Sixer? Your _weakest_ attack?"

Sixer blinked. "Yes."

"Sixer, that — that's _four times_ the strength of one of my average Fire Spheres!" The Guildmaster summoned a ball of flame half the size of her head, leaving it to hover a little above her open hand. "Either that means you've got a bigger well of energy than I do, or you've never used less energy than that before and don't really know how far your energy can go."

The fireball bounced out of her palm and dissipated into the air.

Sixer blinked. The level of power had never mattered to him before.

"Did you ever experiment with how much energy you could put into an attack? Or how little?"

Sixer blinked, then shook his head. "Cipher required destruction and chaos. He did not see any point in giving us permission to experiment with our abilities beyond what he required of us."

The Guildmaster winced. "…okay. So he didn't want you using weaker attacks. I get it." She shook her head, frowning. "But that said, do you feel even a little bit put off that you weren't able to experiment with that power?"

Sixer tilted his head. "I did what was required. Why would I have ever considered experimenting if I wasn't told to?"

The Guildmaster groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Wiped out that too, huh?" She sighed and looked at Sixer. "Well, you're powerful, but you don't have a complete grasp on your abilities. That basic attack — if I can call it that — didn't have any sort of form to it. I can't shape it into something for you. I can't make it turn into spheres or something else — this is _your_ fire, not mine. Just like you are your own person, and not something that I can — or even _want_ — to control."

…his own person? That didn't make any sense. Sixer may as well have been an extension of the Guildmaster's will at this point, not someone who could think and act on his own.

The Guildmaster raised a hand to her chest — right over her heart — and clenched it into a fist. "I don't know if this makes sense to you right now, Sixer, but…your emotions and knowledge are still yours to use. You can still think on your own without requiring someone to guide you; you can still _feel_ without me guiding you. I don't intend to take the place of what you lost in that way. I see myself as a pillar for you to lean against, not someone who can order you around because I feel like it."

Sixer stared. What…what was she saying? It didn't make any sense. Knowledge and emotions were _his_ to use? But he was—

The Guildmaster sighed and dropped her hand. "Sixer, what do you think of me? And be honest — I don't care if you say something you think I won't like."

Sixer stiffened at the question. He hadn't been expecting her to ask him something like _that._ "I…I think that…"

It took him a moment to figure out how to word this. She was asking him _directly_ for his opinion of her. An _opinion._

I…I think that you…you aren't sure what you would have me do yet. Because…"

He hadn't formed _an opinion_ since he didn't know when.

"…you haven't had an opportunity like this before."

The Guildmaster's mouth flattened into a straight line. "When I look at you, I see a _responsibility."_

Sixer blinked in confusion.

"I see a responsibility that _I_ have to take on," the Guildmaster continued. "I don't see you as a tool to be used, Sixer. You're not — you're not _something_ to order around, you're _someone_ who has fallen on hard times and needs help. I'm not going to make you do anything that I have to do because of circumstance, or because chores need to be done around the house, or anything like that. I just — I'm _not_ gonna do that. It's not in my _nature_ to order people around like that."

Sixer stared blankly. Not in her…nature?

"That's why I'm not telling you to make breakfast for anybody." The Guildmaster shook her head. "That would be ridiculously stupid, especially since I can do that on my own."

"Yeah!" Mabelcorn piped up suddenly. "You're hurt, even if it isn't a hurt we can bandage up. We're not gonna make you guys do anything stupid, or anything that would hurt you more. That's why Grunkle Sphinx said Star didn't _have_ to use her powers if she didn't feel like it!"

Sixer blinked. He remembered that happening, but… _hurt?_ He felt physically and mentally capable of anything…well, almost anything…that the Guildmaster might tell him to do. Being unable to speak opinions might be a problem now, but he was sure that he would be able to improve to an acceptable level. He just…wasn't sure how.

The Guildmaster took a few steps forward, narrowing the space between herself and Sixer. "I'm not seeking destruction of the local area. _I'm not Cipher._ So if you're comparing me to him…please don't? Because I think it's already pretty clear from the last few days that I'm _not_ him. And I never intend to be."

 _I'm not Cipher._

She'd said that before, when he had revealed that the Dark Arms had put out a bounty through Cipher for her head.

Sixer's gaze flicked away from the Guildmaster when he remembered that, then he looked back at her. He went through what he knew of the Guildmaster from the last few days. She could travel across dimensions of her own will. She was more likely to use her own abilities rather than rely on others when she knew she could accomplish a certain task. She did not show anger. Or, she hadn't yet.

No, the Guildmaster wasn't Cipher.

But what would this mean for—

No. No questions. The Guildmaster hadn't asked for them.

Sixer bowed his head slightly and nodded.

"Let's leave off testing your fire power for now; I don't think it'd be a good idea when you're not used to experimenting." The Guildmaster's hand twitched, like she was going to reach forward, but she held back. "I'll try to figure out something else we can do in the meantime."

Sixer nodded. Mentally, he was still reeling. The Guildmaster _wasn't_ Cipher. That meant everything he had come to expect — orders, reactions — would not be what he _should_ expect from the Guildmaster.

She had already surprised him with not being angry at him for knowing about the Dark Arms when she didn't. And in making meals for him, on top of what had happened when his stomach had thrown back a meal. He didn't know what to expect from her.

But he would learn to know what he could expect. The Master — Cipher — had begun as unpredictable, but had then fallen into a rhythm. The Guildmaster would do the same.


	9. A Quiet Moment

**Chapter 9 - A Quiet Moment**

The next day, the Guildmaster spent the afternoon muttering over a newspaper and two journals. She seemed intent on writing something in her own records, and didn't require Sixer's assistance for it. He sat on the couch and watched as she wrote, waiting for her to tell him to do something.

The thought occurred to him that he had been waiting a long time for nothing to happen.

The thought caught him by surprise. He blinked a couple times. _Why_ was he thinking? The Guildmaster hadn't—

 _"_ _Your emotions and knowledge are still yours to use."_

…oh. Right. The Guildmaster _had_ said that. Alongside with her declaration that she was not Cipher.

That was the second time she had said it. The first had been when she had opened a portal across dimensions to the Fearamid in the past. His past. Her present.

His tails shifted on the couch before settling. His head felt…strange.

Unbidden, thoughts started listing in his mind.

The Guildmaster had taken control of him from Cipher, just as the rest of his family had been taken by Stanley, Sphinx, and Mizar. Since that day, _none_ of them had been treated in a manner that Sixer was used to.

The Guildmaster's statement that she wasn't Cipher made sense in that regard. She wasn't using him to run errands, to capture enemies, or to be used in any other personal manner.

…Crescent had said that first day that there would be no blackouts anymore. He didn't question why Crescent knew about them. He questioned the truth of that statement instead.

Just because the Guildmaster hadn't shown that kind of interest in his actions _yet_ didn't mean that she was going to continue to ignore him in that manner.

He pushed that thought further back than the rest for now. Were there other matters that required his attention? Likely.

His brow furrowed as what felt like a headache started to develop. Thinking was starting to get difficult because of the pain.

He sighed quietly and closed his eyes. He should put off thinking for a little longer, before trying again.

 **Change in POV**

"So, it's been almost a week now."

Crescent looked over at Stanley. The two of them were standing outside of the Shack, in a corner area where they wouldn't be disturbed. Soos was — apparently — running the tours again today.

"I still can't get used ta ya needlin' the back of my head," Stanley added. He sipped from his Pitt Cola can and looked over at Crescent. "How's it feel on yer end again?"

"Well, yer voice isn't in my head, so that's a plus." Crescent mimicked his counterpart's movements with his own can. The soda's fizz was a strange but welcoming sensation. "An' yer not tellin' me ta do things that he did."

Stanley grunted. "Like I'd want to. No way in hell am I gonna act like that stupid demon an' tell ya ta tear apart families or somethin' worse. I'd donate everythin' ta charity if I did that." He finished off his can and spat the pitt back into the can with practiced aim. "Settlin' in all right? Haven't been doin' anything ya see fit ta complain about, have ya?"

"Well, I'd wish that Maria kid would think ta get Sixer out ta interact with the kids a bit." Crescent nodded over to where Star, Pine, Mizar, and Sphinx were sitting in a circle together. "I mean, I get the whole thing where she's worried about him an' all, but keepin' him cooped up can't be a good thing."

"Wendy said she's not sure what she's doin', so that could be part of it. But yer right." Stanley rapped against the wall behind him in thought. "Think we should go drive 'em outta the house an' over here? Would give 'em somethin' ta do, at least."

Crescent shrugged. "Far be it from me ta tell that kid what ta do."

"That's not a very Stanley Pines thing ta say."

"Yeah. But I'm not feelin' up ta that yet."

Stanley raised an eyebrow at his counterpart. "An' when will ya?"

"Hard ta say. I've been fightin' against that demon fer so long, tryin' ta drop hints about what happened, an' then alluva sudden this kid comes in, wipes the floor wit' us, an' makes a connection I didn't." Crescent made a broad motion with one hand towards the Shack that Maria and Sixer were sitting in. "I was not expectin' that."

"We weren't expectin' you ta show up," Stanley replied. "Maria, maybe. I've kinda met her before."

Crescent blinked, raising an eyebrow.

"She helped my bro get home a couple'a years ago. Would'a made a portal herself ta get him back here, but apparently Cipher did somethin' so she was blocked off. Didn't stop her from makin' open windows so we could talk ta each other, though." Stanley shrugged. "We managed ta get a few things settled, an' then when the portal turned on, she kept it stable on her end so it wouldn't tear up her street. Must've made quite the light show fer her neighbors."

Stanley chuckled, but his laugh sounded half-hearted.

Crescent blinked again, then frowned. "She stabilized it?"

"On her end. That stupid rift still showed up afterwards, but Ford said it was smaller than he was expectin'. Cipher still got through it, but then we pulled the memory thing an' he wasn't a problem after that." Stanley grinned. "That was a good feelin', punchin' that triangle in the eye."

"I'd like it if I had that chance."

Stanley looked at Crescent in surprise. Seeing his counterpart looking away from him with an unhappy expression, he clapped his hand on the other's shoulder. "Hey, now. Ya might get that chance yet. I mean, punchin' demons seems ta be a weakness for 'em that we've got covered." He raised his other hand — still holding the empty soda can — and grinned. "Just you wait — you'll get yer chance ta teach him what it means ta mess with the Pines!"

Crescent's mouth quirked up a little, but it dropped just as quickly. "If he doesn't try ta take us back first."

Stanley frowned. "Oh yeah, that could be a problem. We'll have ta keep you guys in the Shacks fer a bit when it starts, then — unicorn barrier an' all."

"Do you _really_ think that'll keep him out for long?"

"So long as McGucket doesn't try ta make it inta a Shacktron without putting more unicorn hair all over the place, sure." Stanley shrugged. "He might do somethin' else this time, though. Just ta make sure that he can catch the demon by surprise."

Crescent inclined his head slightly, considering. "If he can."

"Yer soundin' more like a Debbie Downer there, Crescent."

"Kinda hard not ta. I'm jus' tryin' ta be realistic here."

"Realistic _how?"_ Stanley frowned.

"He didn't _get_ beat like yours did. He's been runnin' around, breakin' inta dimensions an' makin' deals with people from all over the place. Practically has an army of Henchies now, but they usually stick to their own places and run people inta the ground. If he's plannin' on gettin' us back, he might pull out all the stops ta get us." Crescent shrugged. "Just, ya know, somethin' ta consider."

Stanley's frown deepened. He opened his mouth to offer a counterpoint, paused in thought, then asked, "An' how cocky has he gotten?"

"Huh?"

"Ya heard me. How overconfident is he that he's not gonna get his ass handed ta him on a silver platter?"

Crescent glanced over at the Sphinx and Mizar to see if they'd heard Stanley's question. Upon seeing Sphinx looking at him with a curious frown, he looked back at Stanley.

"Watchin' Cipher's moods isn't _exactly_ somethin' that I tried ta make a habit of," Crescent said. "At first. He liked makin' himself appear all chaotic an' nobody can guess what he's gonna do next — but really, when all he's got left ta do is go after more dimensions, hunt down other Fords an' get mad over one thing or another? He started ta fall inta a bit of a pattern. I think he got _bored_ with everythin' that he'd _been_ doin', an' now he's thinkin' that he's gonna find a challenge in whatever's goin' on here." He motioned half-heartedly with one hand to the clearing. "Why else put four a'ya together?"

"Maybe see what happens if we decide _not_ to get along and tear each other apart?" Sphinx asked as Pine and Star turned to look at Crescent and Stanley.

"Well, that's not gonna happen." Mizar pushed herself to her feet. "Not on my watch. Besides, if he'd wanted that, he wouldn't have stuck everyone in town together like he did. Four Gravity Fallses would be more friction than one with everyone having memories of all of them."

Crescent shrugged. "Like I know what goes through his head. Er. apex?"

"Either works," Sphinx replied with an annoyed expression. The wings that were pressed against his back rose a little as his tail flicked back and forth. "If he wants a challenge, he is certainly going to get one with all of us working together. _And_ without his usual means of terrifying the populace."

"All the better for us," Mizar agreed.

Pine and Star exchanged uneasy, but wide-eyed looks. Crescent had been watching them the last couple days, and it looked like they were starting to act a little different. He wasn't entirely sure, though.

"Th-then, what are we gonna do?" Star asked. "How can we prepare?"

"We can start by making sure that _you_ don't feel obligated to hang on our every word," Sphinx replied gently. "I was thinking of paying the unicorns a little _visit_ later. Perhaps sometime after school is let out for the day so that I can take one of the other children along. I'm sure that, when presented with the situation as it stands, they will be…reluctantly willing to hand over some of their hair. Or not reluctant at all." He grinned, showing off a set of sharp fangs that had no business being in a human face.

Then again, Sphinx _was_ a sphinx. The fact that he was a lion had to show up in more places than just his body from the neck down.

The grin relaxed after a moment. "If you would like to come along, I'm not against it." He nodded to Star. "The unicorns will likely attempt to pull the same 'pure of heart' scam they did in your dimension if they see you, however."

"It's okay," Star murmured. "I…I know I'm not."

Mizar sucked in a breath sharply, then moved over and hugged Star tightly, being careful to mind the wings. "I refuse to believe that."

Star stiffened, confused. "But — but I did terrible things!"

"But did you _like_ doing them?" Sphinx asked gently.

Star blinked. "N…no?"

"Did you personally decide to do those terrible things?"

"N…no." Star shook her head. "I can't do that. I can't decide."

"Because someone else is in control of that."

Star nodded at Sphinx's statement. "Y-yeah."

"But you neither decided on making those actions, nor did you like what you did. If you _had,_ then I would be more inclined to say that you are less pure than your counterparts." One of Sphinx's wings unfurled and wrapped around Star and Mizar. "You were in a position that no one should ever be in. And I don't intend to make you do such things as Cipher forced you to ever again. What you do with your abilities is your own decision."

Star made a sound, like she was trying to say something, but then she cut herself off and buried her face in Sphinx's wing instead.

"The forest…"

Mizar turned to look at Pine curiously.

"The forest knows we're here," Pine said slowly. His hands were in the grass, taking fistfuls of the green blades. His eyes were glowing a soft blue — not a full extent of his power, but enough of it. "It doesn't know what to make of us. The creatures in it are nervous."

"Well, I hope we can make them not nervous," Mizar replied. "You gonna keep going, Dip-dop? Or do you think you should stop for the day?"

The glow faded from Pine's eyes. "I should give the forest time before I go deeper. Gravity Falls is older than the other forests I've felt."

"All-righty then." Mizar slipped away from Star and out from under Sphinx's wing, then sat next to Pine again. "Anything else you'd like to do today?"

Pine blinked at the question, then turned his attention upwards. "I like how the sun feels."

"Cloud-watching it is," Mizar decided. She fell back from her sitting position, lying down on the grass and putting her hands behind her head.

"Things are lookin' up," Stanley said with a grin. He looked at Crescent and nudged him with an elbow. "The kid's birthday's tomorrow. Remember that?"

Crescent frowned. "…I think so?"

"We're gonna have a big barbecue tomorrow. Wanna help me get some supplies?" Stanley's grin widened. "It's been a while since I made a grocery run, an' it's not every day I can say that it was _just me."_

Crescent's mouth upturned slightly. "If ya need the extra arms, I'm yer guy."

"Excellent." Stanley dropped the empty soda can and rubbed his hands together. "Let's see how much ya remember."


	10. Actual Conversation

**Posting a day early this week because tomorrow I'm gonna be a bit busy.**

 **No chapters next week because I'm gonna be away from the wi-fi, so I'm gonna post twice in two weeks - day after I get back, and then on that Friday.**

 **Chapter 10 - Actual Conversation**

Sixer still wasn't used to the fact that he now had an actual bed to sleep on. Yes, he'd had one for the last two times he'd gone to sleep, but the mere idea of it confused him. He would have been just as fine on the floor without a bed, or just sleeping on the couch.

But, it was the Guildmaster's and Alex's decision to make sure he, Crescent, Star, and Pine each had one, so he wasn't about to argue.

It's just that it made it difficult to get up.

Crescent grunted from across the room as he pushed himself into an upright position. Sixer watched him from where he lay on his side under the covers. "Whelp. Another day a' not destroyin' people's lives an' another day closer ta Cipher tryin' ta do that." He stepped out of bed wearing nothing but his boxers and pulled on the pair of sweatpants that was draped over the food of the bed, followed by the shirt that was next to it. He noticed Sixer watching and gave him a nod. "Morning."

Sixer eyed his brother for a moment, then pushed himself up to a sitting position. He hadn't undressed the night before, having just pulled off the new pair of boots he had been gifted with the day before and collapsed onto the bed and waited for sleep to take him.

"Come on, Sixer, she didn't tell ya ya _couldn't_ talk ta anybody. It's okay ta look for loopholes."

Sixer frowned. "Is it? You searched for them and—"

"That was before. Things're diff'rent, remember?" Crescent raised an eyebrow at Sixer. "I mean, _come on,_ Sixer. It's pretty clear she's not thinkin' a'ya as 'less than nothin'."

Sixer's ears pulled back. He remembered Cipher telling him such things; it wasn't hard not to.

"So don't worry so much about what Maria'll have ya do an' not do. She put more restrictions on herself an' the others than us, anyway." Crescent shrugged and walked out of the room.

Sixer looked around and, noticing that Pine and Star had already gotten up and left the room, pulled on his boots and followed suit. The Guildmaster was likely going to be expecting him on the couch downstairs soon.

The door was closing as a group of small figures disappeared out the door and Sixer stepped into the living room. He thought he saw Star's wings for a moment as he moved over to the couch and sat down.

Alex came out of the kitchen. "Morning, Uncle Sixer. Maria isn't over here yet, although she is usually up by now. I've got some breakfast ready for you if you're hungry."

Sixer's stomach grumbled at the mention of food, and Alex took that as an indication to bring over a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.

Sixer considered not eating until the Guildmaster came over, but Alex was watching him.

Unbidden, his mind went back to what Crescent had _just_ said when Sixer had been waking up. _"It's okay ta look for loopholes."_

The Guildmaster had never said that he _couldn't_ accept food from anyone other than her. She had never said that.

Settled, but still uncertain about whether or not it was safe for him to do so, he ate the breakfast as Alex disappeared into the kitchen, then put the plate on the coffee table and prepared to wait for the Guildmaster to arrive.

It did not take her long to step through the doorway.

"Morning, Sixer," the Guildmaster said. "You up for breakfast?"

Sixer shook his head, causing her eyebrows to rise. "Alex provided that." He motioned to the empty plate sitting on the table.

The Guildmaster blinked, then smiled and nodded. "I'll have to thank him for that when I see him. Is he still in the kitchen?"

She wasn't angered at not giving him a meal herself. He had done something she had not said anything for or against, and she wasn't mad at his actions.

"Indeed I am." Alex stuck his head through the doorway. "You must've been distracted by something since you didn't get over here earlier. I figured that I'd get Uncle Sixer something to eat in the meantime."

"I'm glad for that. Stanley gave me a fake ID to work with so that I can get a job in town without any problem with taxes or anything like that." The Guildmaster gained a lopsided smile. "I was expecting them to take longer to get here, honestly."

"Fake ID? Are you sure you need something like that?"

"Considering that there is a version of me who already exists in _Iowa?_ Yes." The Guildmaster nodded as Alex raised his eyebrows. "I'm not about to pull an identity theft on her by using my data, especially when I technically don't exist in this America's systems."

The Guildmaster had a counterpart here? He would have to remember that, in case they were to meet her. It would not be wise to mistake the counterpart for the Guildmaster by accident.

"…yeah, that makes sense. I wish I wasn't as okay as I am with the idea of you taking on a fake identity to be able to live around here for a while, but that makes sense." Alex frowned. "Did Uncle Stanley tell you about what he's doing today?"

"The grilling thing and how it might end up attracting the attention of the town, you mean?" The Guildmaster tilted her head.

Grilling?

"Not might," Alex corrected. "Will. If I know anything about Uncle Stanley's grilling, he and Uncle Stanford are going to be having a field day with cooking experiments. Most people will come out for the food and the show they're gonna get along with it. Not to mention it's also the twins' birthday and they're probably going to be spoiled rotten with presents."

The Guildmaster winced, looking worried. "Oh geez, I hadn't realized. If that's the case, then the situation might get found out sooner than I would have liked."

Sixer started frowning. Found out?

Had she been intending on keeping them hidden from the rest of Gravity Falls?

"Which means that either—"

"Guildmaster, may I ask something?"

The Guildmaster cut herself off and blinked in surprise before looking curious. "What is it, Sixer?"

Sixer's gaze shifted away from the Guildmaster for a moment, but then he refocused on her. "How long are you intending to keep us hidden?"

He had to ask it slowly; it felt like thinking enough to put the question together was walking through a bog.

The Guildmaster blinked, then answered carefully, "Well, that partially depends on you. We only rescued you guys about a week ago, Sixer. I would have liked to see you guys recover a little more mentally before letting you be exposed to the entire town at once. I don't know how well you would be able to handle something like that." She paused. "Why do you ask? Do you think there's a chance you _could_ handle something like that?"

Sixer frowned and tilted his head as Alex stepped out of the kitchen, drying his hands with a towel. It would be wise to inform her of his experience with coming across large crowds of people. "I am…more used to having people run from me or fight against me, Guildmaster. I am more familiar with large crowds in that form."

"And if it's a large group that have come to eat food and talk?"

"I have been talked at, Guildmaster." Cipher had done that before, not seeing fit to give Sixer the permission to answer. But the Guildmaster operated differently. She allowed him to respond, and she responded to him in turn.

"But you haven't held a conversation with someone other than…" The Guildmaster trailed off.

It took Sixer a moment to realize she thought that Cipher held conversation with him. But there was someone he had talked to once. "I met a counterpart of myself in service to another Cipher. We have…spoken. On occasion."

It had eventually become Sixer getting talked at as well, but if he wasn't intended to be there as someone to participate with words, he didn't see much of a point in trying.

"Another kitsune?" the Guildmaster asked.

Sixer shook his head. "A bishop, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster's face went white.

"A bishop to a demon?" Alex frowned. He noticed the Guildmaster's expression. "You know about him?"

"Only by word of mouth," the Guildmaster replied. "I'm — in my dimension, Gravity Falls is considered fictional by the people who don't travel across dimensions. I grew up watching Stanford's and Stanley's summer of 2012 as a _cartoon._ My knowledge of the other timelines here came from _fanfiction_ that other fans of the show created. The Cipher-Bishop was one of the alternate timelines that didn't get as much of a focus as the others, but I did come across a little about him."

"But you didn't know about—"

"No. I didn't know about Sixer and his family until I arrived here. I never came across information like that in my dimension."

Sixer blinked slowly. The Guildmaster hadn't been aware of himself and his family before her arrival in this dimension. But ther ewas something that he remembered about their initial encounter….

The Guildmaster sighed and shook her head. "Talk about being woefully unprepared in the area I need to be."

"Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster looked over at Sixer. "Yeah?"

"You…recognized my brother, when you found us." Sixer frowned. The words were being said, but he was having a somewhat difficult time finding them. "Is it because of who my brother's counterparts are?"

The Guildmaster paused, then shook her head. "No, that's not — I get visions of places, sometimes. And…I got a vision of the inside of what I _guess_ is the Fearamid. I saw a Stan who looks like Crescent there, and I tried to ask him about what was going on. He kept avoiding the subject and told me to get out before 'he' came back. Then I heard indistinct voices from somewhere and was forcefully pushed out of the vision." She shrugged. "I didn't see the connection it had to what I was doing in getting Stan and Ford home until I got here last week and ran into you guys."

Sixer's frown remained. Something about that…. "Crescent mentioned running into a girl before we were sent here. He said she looked like a ghost and disappeared when th — when _he_ returned." He focused more on the Guildmaster's face. "He said he thought you were a ghost of someone who had been killed in the Fearamid."

The Guildmaster looked surprised.

"You're saying she was physically—"

"Not physically," the Guildmaster cut Alex off with a shake of her head. She frowned. "I guess…visions are more of a mental projection, then? Or a spiritual one? I never really thought of what _really_ happened when I experienced something like that. But someone _was_ able to interact with me through a vision once before — a man named Rourke, or a shade of him. That was about 980 years ago, though…. Thank you for telling me, Sixer. That actually explains a few things."

"What do you mean?" Alex frowned.

"Cipher's presence kept me from knowing about what had happened to Sixer and his family until now. It would have kept me from being able to portal right into his dimension too — I tried to bring Stanford home that way and ended up getting blocked. Cipher _knew_ I was trying to get involved somehow."

"Well, then why were you able to bring Uncle Stan and Uncle Ford home?" Alex responded. "They've got their Cipher to deal with, don't they?"

Sixer shifted again on the couch, remembering something. When the Guildmaster looked at him, he said, "Some Ciphers have met abrupt ends to beings known to other Ciphers, but not known to me."

The Guildmaster's eyes widened. "Someone else is out there killing Ciphers besides the Pines?"

Sixer shrugged. That was apparently the case, but he didn't know _who_ it was.

"So then, that means that Stan's and Ford's actually passed at some point before I got them home last week. That's a relief. Huh." The Guildmaster smiled a little at the thought and nodded. "That's really interesting, actually. It means that we're not alone in the fight against Ciphers across the multiverse. I like that."

Sixer's tails twitched as he frowned. The Guildmaster was glad that Ciphers were meeting their ends — as she herself wasn't a Cipher and was against one, it made sense that she would react in this way. He could feel his thoughts growing more sluggish again.

"Think there's a chance that this other person could take out the Cipher that's _supposed_ to come at the end of the year?" Alex asked.

The Guildmaster frowned. "As much as I'd like to _hope_ for that, I'm getting the feeling that we're not _that_ lucky." She sighed. "As much as I'd _like_ to think that Cipher could die between now and then, the Multiverse seems to like to mess with me enough that we're probably still gonna have a Cipher problem next August, whether we like it or not."

Alex frowned.

"Guildmaster…." Sixer hesitated, then decided to follow through. "He made deals with other Ciphers, and with other creatures. Former humans who shed their humanity for a new form, in exchange for loyalty to him. He will not be easily killed. He is far too strong."

Alex frowned. "What makes you-"

"He's got a point."

The Guildmaster turned to face the source of the voice — Mizar, standing in the doorway leading out to the porch. Sixer saw that Pine was standing behind her, a calculating expression on his face.

"Alcor's told me this — demons _live_ on deals." Mizar stepped into the house. "If their Cipher's made a ton of them and those deals are still going, then it's gonna be hard to take him down."

The Guildmaster's frown deepened. "That's…going to make stopping Weirdmageddon a lot more difficult than it was the first time around." She put her hands on her hips. "Well, _that's_ just great! At least we have a year to think of something that could be his weakness, but at the same time he's probably shoring up whatever he needs for when he gets here! He definitely wasn't happy when I broke Sixer from his control."

No, he probably had not been, Sixer silently agreed. He could still remember distinctly what had happened when the Guildmaster had taken control.

"We'll come up with something," Mizar said. "I mean, it's going to take a bit of thinking, but Ciphers always have a weakness. Everyone does."

"I don't doubt that, but it's gonna be a matter of _finding_ that weakness — or finding something we can use that hasn't been used already. He probably knows about the memory erasing trick already, so that's a no-go." The Guildmaster frowned. "Great; now I'm gonna have this stewing at the back of my head on top of everything else."

"How about a distraction, then?" Mizar grinned.

The Guildmaster frowned. "What kind of distraction?"

"Well, we're gonna need help getting everything together for the whole Labor Day Party thing, so do you wanna help with the grilling bit? We've got one, but Grunkle Journal's not gonna go anywhere near it, and I'm not gonna trust Grunkle Andrew with it, either." Mizar rocked back and forth on her feet. "I mean, you've been around for a while, right? You've gotta have a few tricks up your sleeve that nobody else around here does. _Please?"_

Sixer watched Mizar and Pine. If Mizar was asking for the Guildmaster's assistance, than it was likely he was going to become involved as well. His gaze locked with Pine's, and he noticed his eyebrows come together in a way that was similar to how the Guildmaster looked at him sometimes. He wasn't sure what the look meant.

The Guildmaster blinked at the question, still frowning. "Well, I…I don't see why not, I guess. I've got a few things in subspace storage that I can use for that kinda thing. Give me some time to set up and whatever meat you want me to grill and I should be good to go."

Mizar grinned widely. "This is gonna be fun. Come on, Pine! I'll got introduce you to the Multibear in a bit — we gotta get the grill out first and make sure Alcor's not gonna mess with it!" She turned and bounded out of the house.

"S-sure," Pine replied quickly. He looked at Sixer for a moment longer, then followed after Mizar.

The Guildmaster watched them go for a moment. Sixer watched her in return as his thoughts sluggishly put themselves together in his mind.

Pine appeared to be…behaving differently. Sixer wasn't sure how.

"Well, might as well go help set up and figure out what I'm gonna be doing all day." The Guildmaster looked over at Sixer, who had moved his gaze to her as she had spoken. "Come on, Sixer. Might as well get introducing you to the locals over with, if they're gonna be coming here later."

Sixer nodded and rose from the couch, then followed the Guildmaster outside.

Sixer found he was getting better at figuring out _when_ he was on top of _where_ he was. According to the sun, it was still morning, and he could see his counterparts and the Guildmaster's nephews getting something set up in front of each of their homes. Stanley — with Vash and Knives' help — was moving a few old, sphere-shaped black pieces of metal on stands form somewhere behind the Shack. Gargrunkle was carrying out a battered-looking black cauldron of a grill in his claws, and Mizar was already standing outside of her library-shack, next to Pine and a long table of ingredients.

And a large fire pit that hadn't been there before.

The Guildmaster frowned and walked over, Sixer following behind and staying in step with her. "Did you make a deal for that?"

"What?" Mizar looked at the Guildmaster curiously.

"The fire pit. That wasn't there yesterday."

Sixer tilted his head slightly. Deal?

"Oh, that? Yeah. I figured you might want something different to make the meat a bit more smoky or something." Mizar grinned. "The meat over there's all store-bought, though — don't touch the candy on the end; I'm gonna make Alcor corporeal later when people start showing up."

"And your grunkles?" The Guildmaster moved closer to inspect the fire pit, giving it a closer inspection.

"Grunkle Andrew might be out later. I dunno about Grunkle Journal, though. He likes his books, and he doesn't like fire."

"Fair enough." The Guildmaster paused, thinking. "Got any wood nearby? Or coal? If we're gonna get this fire pit started, I may as well get it stoked now." The Guildmaster looked over at Mizar and raised an eyebrow.

Mizar grinned. "Not gonna be a problem!"


	11. Meeting the Townsfoik

**Thanks to abbydobbie for the Fav! You're the first person who's done that in a while!**

 **Chapter 11 - Meeting the Townsfolk**

Sixer remained sitting on the porch while the Guildmaster crouched and worked over the fire pit, turning a number of chickens on a spit while a crisscrossing section of metal sizzled with steaks. She'd had him jumpstart the fire in the pit below, then help her prepare the meat the was to be cooked. She had left him to watch after that.

It meant that he was the one observing when every single passerby stared at him with surprised expressions that very quickly became nervous ones. In return, he started slowly identifying the faces who were looking at him.

Susan. Dan Corduroy. Tad McGucket. Wendy Corduroy. Teenagers. Children. All people he was familiar with seeing frozen in terror in Cipher's throne of eternal agony.

It was…strange, seeing them walking and talking and not running in terror or remaining frozen in place. Then again, he was in a place where Weirdmageddon wasn't currently taking place.

"Hey, Maria." A teenage boy with dark greasy hair and a hoodie sweatshirt with a stitched heart on the front strode over to the fire pit. "What's with the Dr. Pines over there? I definitely don't remember anything different happening with that monster spring or anything like that."

"Hm?" The Guildmaster looked up from the spit. "Oh, you mean Sixer?" She glanced back at him; he met her gaze, expecting her to tell him to do something before she turned back to look at the teenager. "Sixer's new. And not…not new memories new."

"Not new —" The teenager cut himself off. "How does _that_ work? Is there another Gravity Falls around here or somethin'?"

"I wish, Robbie."

Robbie. Right; he was a member of the Zodiac. Now the stitched heart made sense. Sixer tilted his head slightly, blinking. Robbie was looking at him with an expression that showed what he suspected was unease. Another emotion he was familiar with seeing.

"You feeling okay over there, Sixer? Smoke not getting to you or you're not hungry yet?"

Sixer's gaze snapped back to the Guildmaster at her question; he considered, then shook his head. "I'm fine, Guildmaster."

"The heck?" Robbie muttered.

"Let's just say that what happened to him and his family is something that the townsfolk as a whole don't like to think about because it connects back to _that_ summer," the Guildmaster replied. "Things didn't end well."

Robbie's eyebrows shot up. "You serious?" He looked at Sixer again, who moved his gaze away from the teenager. He still tracked the teenager's movement from the edge of his vision. "This has got to do with that Act?"

"What _happened_ that _resulted_ in the Act is involved," the Guildmaster confirmed. "But things didn't end the way they did from what you remember."

"…oh." Robbie blinked a couple times. "Geez, that's some nasty stuff. This why you haven't been coming into town often?"

"I've been…keeping an eye on him, yeah." The Guildmaster looked at Sixer, who raised his head as she did. Her brow was furrowed. "Honestly, I would have preferred giving him more time before he ended up introduced to the people here, but…well, when you have a bunch of Pines having a birthday at the end of summer there isn't much chance of that." She chuckled, but it didn't sound right to Sixer, somehow.

He tilted his head at her, then noticed movement as more people started to come over. Familiar faces who had circled around were coming back to the fire pit, some led by a skinny man with a sash across his chest that red "MAYOR" in bright red.

He blinked blankly while the Guildmaster turned her attention to him. He remembered — vaguely — that this man had been a part of Cipher's throne, at the base.

"You're Maria?" the man asked in a serious tone.

"I am." The Guildmaster turned the spit with one hand, looking up at the man. "And you're Mayor Tyler Cutebiker, the man who came up with the Never Mind All That Act after the events of a certain summer that you would rather not think about. I assume you heard from Sheriff Blubs about our meeting in the arcade?"

"You're the—" Tyler blinked in surprise. "Well now, it seems that I can kill two birds with one stone today! Findin' out about that new Pines family _an'_ takin' care of figurin' out what ta do with you!"

The Guildmaster walked over to the middle of the spit, between two of the four chickens, and lifted up the warm rod without so much as a flinch. People were starting to gather, and Sixer watched them as the Guildmaster put the spit on a table nearby. "Ask away. But I'm gonna warn you — some of the answers _may_ steer into Never Mind All That territory, unless you have a loophole for inter-dimensional travelers like myself."

The confident look on Tyler's face faltered. Sixer noticed that the others standing around were looking at them with defensive expressions as well. He prepared to rise at a moment's notice if the Guildmaster found she had need of him.

If nothing else, defense from a mob of people seemed a likely thing that she would do.

"How familiar are ya with that?" Tyler asked. His voice — which had been light before — became more serious. Sixer equated that to mean it was likely Tyler was going to try to attack the Guildmaster at a moment's notice.

"I come from a dimension where I was able to watch what happened," the Guildmaster replied. "I _also_ helped Stanford get home, and I brought home Tyrone's and Maple's grunkles. I knew that the reason for the act was dangerous, even before I ran into him — briefly — when I arrived here."

The Guildmaster looked back at Sixer with a guarded expression, and Sixer knew what she meant. She was talking about her invasion of his mind, when she had taken control of him.

Tyler looked in his direction as well, and Sixer averted his gaze.

The Guildmaster moved over to the fire pit again and crouched, then started inspecting the steaks. "Go ahead. Sixer, if he directs any questions at you, it's okay to answer them."

Sixer nodded, which only caused Tyler's gaze to sharpen.

"And why would you need ta give a Stanford Pines _permission_ ta answer questions?" Tyler asked.

"That delves into Act territory." The Guildmaster looked up at Tyler. "Are you sure you want me to answer that?"

"There's no way that—"

The Guildmaster let out a loud, annoyed sigh. "Look, Sixer and his family come from a dimension where they _lost._ Their enemy did something _to_ them, and was apparently planning on using them to give him access to this dimension to start up another round. Stanley, Sphinx, Mizar, and I rescued them from _his_ control, but not only is he still coming, but they've got some severe mental damage to them that is going to take time to heal."

Tyler stared, as did the other people who were near the fire pit.

"If you want me to explain in more detail, I'd be more than happy to," the Guildmaster added briskly. "But it's not a nice explanation you'll likely be getting, if you ask about Sixer."

Tyler stared as the Guildmaster pulled the steaks onto a plate with a two-pronged fork. She appeared irritated, but Sixer got the feeling that she wasn't irritated at Tyler.

He tilted his head slightly. He wasn't sure where that idea came from.

"Sixer? Is what she sayin' true?"

Sixer looked at Tyler at the question. The man pulled back when their gazes met — it was barely noticeable, but he did seem uncomfortable with it. "Yes."

Tyler paled. He quickly looked between Sixer and the Guildmaster as the rest of the crowd murmured worriedly.

"Excuse me — hey, ya mind — pardon me—"

Crescent shouldered his way past the crowd and stepped out next to Tyler, who didn't seem to notice him approach. Crescent looked between Tyler and the Guildmaster with a bored expression.

The Guildmaster put the plate of steaks on the table. "If you're hungry, Cress, you can take one of these. I'm not—"

"As much as I appreciate the offer, kid, Stanley sent me over here in case ya needed any additional help." Crescent looked at Tyler again. "He's gonna come outta that in five seconds screamin' fer answers."

"Been counting down already." The Guildmaster held up three fingers, then two, then one.

As soon as her hand became a loose fist, Tyler strode towards the Guildmaster and got right up in her face. "All right, young lady, I'm gonna let ya talk about whatever it is that deals with the act _just this once._ An' then I've got some paperwork for ya ta fill out so we don't come after ya fer not bein' in school, because that paper was mighty interestin' an' I wanna make sure we got it on record that no one's ta arrest you for truancy."

The Guildmaster — who had leaned back a little when Tyler had approached — blinked in surprise. "Really? Uh…okay then. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."

The Guildmaster looked over at Sixer. He met her gaze expectantly, and she motioned for him to approach. He rose from the porch and started towards her.

"Sixer and his family come from a dimension where they _lost_ to Cipher," the Guildmaster said. "All four of them have been through some tough times, mostly because Cipher's been using them as puppets and walking weapons of mass destruction."

Gasps started rising from the crowd as Sixer stopped next to the Guildmaster. He felt and saw the gazes of the people settling on him, but he paid them no mind. He'd been stared at before.

Being treated like a piece of meat on display was not anything new.

"We've rescued them from his control — myself, Stanley, Sphinx, and Mizar — but there's still damage that needs to be undone. Cipher…he did something to their souls. It's left them dependent on the decisions from the people who were able to rescue them. I have to tell Sixer to do things to get him to do things that he might normally do on his own. It hurts to admit that."

Sixer blinked. He turned his gaze slowly to look at the Guildmaster as her voice wavered.

The Guildmaster breathed in and appeared to steady herself. "And we have another problem. Their Cipher is coming here at the end of next summer."

That statement caused the clearing to fall silent.

"How?" a teenage girl spoke up. Sixer saw her, dressed in purples and black, standing next to Robbie. He didn't recognize her. "They're not making a portal, so—"

"I got this." Crescent looked over at Sixer and the Guildmaster for a moment before turning his attention to the crowd. "He likes usin' the four of us as some kinda anchor or somethin'. I'm no expert on physics, but its like we break down the walls between dimensions just by bein' here. Used ta take him a week, but after a bit it started ta be two weeks, then a month, then two months. This is the first time it's taken a full year." He sent a glance at the Guildmaster. "It's the first time someone's pulled a stunt like this, too. People have tried yellin', implorin' — everythin' except breakin' an' enterin'."

Sixer looked at the Guildmaster and blinked when he saw her mouth was pressed into a straight line. Grim? That seemed to be the right word to describe her expression.

The crowd murmured amongst themselves.

"Poor dears," said a woman's voice. One of Sixer's ears flicked in her direction.

Tyler looked pale, as did most of the rest of the crowd — which, Sixer now noticed, appeared to be most of the town. "Stanford said he was gone for good; why—"

"The one that hounded _him_ was gone for good," the Guildmaster replied. "This dimension wasn't supposed to get involved in anything else involving those events. It's just that one got greedy."

Crescent nodded.

"This is…this is _terrible."_ Tyler was trembling. "I — I thought we'd put that all behind us an' now you bring _another_ one to our doorstep?! Do you realize what you've done?!"

Tyler pointed at Sixer accusingly.

"You're bringin' the end of the world on us again!"

Sixer bowed his head as the Guildmaster started to scramble for a verbal defense.

"Hey! He isn't at fault for this! He couldn't—"

"I was incapable of fighting back."

The Guildmaster cut herself off and looked at Sixer in surprise; the others in the crowd stared at him too.

"Cipher made us puppets to his will. I could do nothing but obey his commands."

The hush that fell over the crowd was a familiar quiet that Sixer was familiar with. In other dimensions, when Cipher had gathered survivors together, the silence came right before someone ordered an attack, and everyone charged, only to be slaughtered.

But this time, things were different. The Guildmaster was not someone who was looking to claim conquest over this dimension. And that left Sixer unsure of what to expect.

A hand suddenly came to rest on his shoulder, and he glanced over at the contact, only to find the Guildmaster looking up at him with a saddened expression.

"You're with me now," the Guildmaster said, her voice taking on a serious tone. "And I'm gonna do what I can to make sure you recover from this."

Sixer blinked. The statement didn't mean much to him — recover? Recover from what? — but there was…something…in the Guildmaster's voice made him tilt his head.

He wasn't sure what to make of it.

The Guildmaster squeezed his shoulder a little, then looked at the townsfolk. "Fiddleford already knows about what's going on; I told him when he came over earlier. As far as I know, he's making machines already. We have _a year._ We have _time_ to prepare that you didn't have last time. I intend to help where I can, and right now I'm planning on helping Sixer and his family recover. They _need_ mental rest. What you do is up to you."

The crowd exchanged looks at the Guildmaster's words. All of them seemed nervous about what was coming.

"I would recommend you take the time to prepare," spoke up a voice at the edge of the crowd — Knives. Sixer barely saw the top of his head over the crowd. "Train so that you will be able to survive in whatever is coming until the danger is passed. If you do not have a weapon, _get one."_

Crescent nodded. "We know the demons he's got at his disposal; we can tell ya what ta expect an' how ta prep."

The crowd murmured, the townsfolk exchanging looks. Some were nodding. The Guildmaster was nodding as well.

"We'll get through this," the Guildmaster said. "You've all survived an attack like this before; you can survive it again. You know what's coming this time. You're in a better position now than you were then. So we use that to our advantage."

"And how do you know this will turn out better than it did last time?" Tyler demanded.

"I don't. But we _have_ to try."

Sixer said nothing, watching as the crowd shifted, seeming to lose some of the nerves that had settled on them. He didn't see why they were going to fight back when his own dimension had ended so badly. The Guildmaster had already said that he had lost to Cipher; why were they preparing to keep him from succeeding?

He did not ask these questions aloud. It surprised him enough that he was doubting the Guildmaster's decisions. And yet…

He had seen Cipher do his work first-hand. By the time the year's wait was up, it was likely he was going to be in the triangle's clutches again.

"We don' have ta worry about gettin' weapons yet," spoke up a voice with a Southern accent. Sixer's ears twitched in his direction immediately. "We got some birthdays ta be celebratin' today, remember? Dipper and Mabel are turnin' one year older! I don' think they'd want us ta be scared or sad today, do ya?"

Fiddleford.

Sixer remembered seeing him as a tapestry, face of horror frozen for the rest of time.

The crowd quickly agreed with the old mechanic's voice and quickly dispersed, trying to back into their previous mood. It was different than it was before, however — Sixer could sense that much.

The Guildmaster patted his shoulder. "Help me get the steaks off the grill?"

Sixer blinked, then nodded.


	12. Hidden Triggers

**...this chapter's a bad one, guys. We get into some of the darker bits of information pertaining to Sixer's previous experience under Cipher's control. Specifically, information that will be triggering to some.**

 **This is the reason why I am changing the rating of this story from "T" to "M." Because of this chapter, and it's content.**

 **I'm gonna give it to you straight: Sixer was forced into an abusive situation. Because he did not have his willpower and determination within him, he was incapable of saying no. As nothing more than a puppet, he _could not give his consent._ The same goes for his family, although they did not get the exact same treatment that he did.**

 **This information was mentioned in the previous fanfic _Puppet AU,_ at the end of chapter 4 and the start of chapter 5. If you were able to handle it then, skip the summary below and read the chapter.**

 **If you want to know what is learned here without reading the chapter, read the summary below. If you cannot handle the information in the chapter or in summary form, skip this chapter entirely. The information as it is packaged here will not make such a visible statement anywhere other than this chapter.**

 **-Summary Start-**

 **What this chapter boils down to (with information learned) is this: the people around Sixer discover that he has been used by Pyronica as a sex toy, and Cipher used Sixer and his family as entertainment for parties (that is: (pole) dancing without any form of a covering). A large number of songs cause Sixer's mind to black out and his body to react on instinct, while Crescent has kept himself aware. Star and Pine likely react the same way Sixer does, but that is not covered here.**

 **The exact event that causes this knowledge to become known happens when Sixer becomes exposed to music that Wendy starts playing in the gift shop of the Mystery Shack. He blacks out and starts to remove his sweater, but Maria and Crescent manage to knock him out before he gets further than grabbing his sweater.**

 **It is also discovered that Pyronica left a number of handprints in various places across Sixer's body. While he can absorb and use fire, it is only certain kinds - Pyronica's demonic flames were still capable of leaving a lasting mark, especially if the kitsune was told to _not_ absorb the flames. (Stanford reveals this, having been in the bathroom with Sixer when telling him to take a shower in chapter 2.)**

 **The chapter ends with Maria/Guildmaster storming out of the house, and Crescent saying that his brother has been like this since Cipher said they were "less than nothing." Crescent and Stanley then go to find songs that would be dangerous for Crescent's family to listen to.**

 **-Summary End-**

 **...read on, if you believe you can handle it.**

 **Chapter 12 — Hidden Triggers**

The weeks following settled into a routine: Sixer woke up with his family, went downstairs after Tyrone, Maple, and their parents had rushed off to school and work, and ate whatever remained of breakfast. Then they met up with Sphinx, Stanley, and the Guildmaster — as Mizar was in school and couldn't spend time with Pine — and decided on the day's activities from there. The Guildmaster spent most her time tending to the orchard as the weather started to cool, but nothing was growing yet.

"Pine is capable of accelerating the growth of plants," Sixer said as they walked back to the Mystery Shack — the only one that seemed to be running, at least. Stanley and Soos had not closed the one tourist trap for long after the day the Guildmaster called "Labor Day." "Why do you not ask Mizar to have him cause your garden to grow?"

"Because I want to see how the berry plants will grow without being magically affected," the Guildmaster replied. "Which is gonna mean waiting until spring for them to start sprouting, probably, but they're pretty hardy plants. At this point I'm just making sure that none of the berries end up getting dug up."

The Guildmaster stepped onto the porch ahead of Sixer, then turned and looked back at him as she opened the door into the house. "If I don't think they'll grow well, _then_ I'll ask. But I just want to wait and see for now."

Sixer didn't question the Guildmaster's logic. He didn't think he had a reason to; if that was her decision, he was not going to argue against it.

Sixer nodded, then stepped into the shack ahead of her. As the Guildmaster closed the door behind him, he looked around and noticed that Crescent was sitting in an old yellow armchair watching TV. Something about the scene was familiar — eerily so — but Sixer pushed that thought out of his mind.

Crescent looked over and nodded at them. "Hey. You were out there for a bit."

"Nothing wrong with sitting around and enjoying the sun a bit," the Guildmaster replied. "Things quiet here?"

Crescent shrugged. "Quiet enough, if ya count all the yammerin' comin' from out there." He nodded towards the swinging door that led out to the gift shop. "I mean, school's been goin' for a while now, right? You'd think that he wouldn't be gettin' customers."

"I think people just like his exhibits." The Guildmaster shrugged. "That seems to be a common theme, anyway."

"If you say so." Crescent sounded doubtful, but he didn't argue. "Hey, uh, the Northwests stopped by earlier — not the kid, just the other two. Sounds like they're interested in what happened to us. Stanley sent 'em off."

Sixer tilted his head. Northwests? He hadn't seen or met anyone with that name since the gathering.

It took him a moment to remember that Crescent was talking about the rich couple who were said to have founded the town, but actually hadn't.

The Guildmaster made an uneasy noise. "I don't think I'm willing to trust those two. At Weirdmageddon, Preston tried to ask Cipher if he could become one of his four horsemen."

Crescent snorted. "And what happened?"

"According to what _I_ saw, he rearranged the positions of Preston's facial features. I don't know if that's the same across the rest of the multiverse." The Guildmaster made a disgusted face.

Sixer was getting better at reading her expressions, so he was able to identify the look as such.

"I haven't met them yet, so I don't know if they're okay after everything that happened across all four timelines, but I'm not about to make any guesses," the Guildmaster added.

Crescent nodded. "Makes sense." He leaned back in the armchair and sighed. "Well, there's not much goin' on right now, kid. If ya wanna hang back here, I'm not gonna stop ya."

"I think I'm gonna have a poke around the museum," the Guildmaster said. "I haven't had a chance to really have a look around yet."

"Good luck not gettin' charged."

The Guildmaster snorted, then stepped past Crescent quickly. Sixer followed after her.

"Hey, Mr. Pines, can I pick the playlist this time?" Wendy asked as the Guildmaster pushed the swinging door open.

"You get yer homework done?" Stanley didn't glance over as he finished readjusting some of the snow globes that were sitting on shelves. Some of them didn't look like normal snow globes — instead, they looked like small lava lamps with floating purple gunk inside.

Sixer's ears flicked when he saw them. They looked oddly familiar.

"I got enough of it done," Wendy replied from behind the counter. "So do I get to pick or not?"

"Yeah, yeah." Stanley waved her off, then turned and blinked when he saw Sixer and the Guildmaster stepping into the gift shop. "Where have you two been all day?"

"Enjoying the quiet in the woods," the Guildmaster replied. "Crescent said you've been getting people come in?"

"Concerned locals, mostly. I'm surprised at ya — you haven't gotten a job yet, like ya said ya would." Stanley poked the Guildmaster in the chest.

Sixer started to move to push Stanley's hand away from her, but the Guildmaster held up a hand and shook his head slightly at him.

"I've been trying, but every place I go to in town says that there aren't any open positions. So I've just been…trying to get Sixer to talk more, I guess." The Guildmaster shrugged.

"Is it workin'?"

"Sometimes." The Guildmaster looked back at Sixer, who held her gaze expectantly. "He's not used to holding a conversation for long yet, I don't think."

Sixer blinked. They had spent a good deal of time "talking" while doing other things in the last few weeks. The Guildmaster had admitted after some time she had been trying to coax responses from Sixer.

The questions were harder to hold back now than they had been before.

Stanley raised an eyebrow at Sixer. "Really? Cress is about as talkative as I am."

Sixer glanced at the Guildmaster, and she gave a small nod. He looked back at Stanley and said, "He was meant to be, in order to blend in better. I was not used for my voice."

The Guildmaster's expression faltered while Stanley's expression darkened.

"Well, we're gonna be expectin' ya ta participate in conversations from now on," Stanley said seriously. "Really, Sixer, it ain't the same without ya talkin'."

Sixer blinked. That made little sense.

"He's right, Sixer," the Guildmaster spoke up. "When you feel up to it, I'd like it if you could—"

Wendy gave a triumphant exclamation from behind the counter, and suddenly music filled the gift shop. A heavy bass blasted, vibrating through the air and into the floorboards.

Sixer's entire body stiffened, and his eyes widened as his vision quickly went dark.

 **Crescent [a/n: here is where the triggering material starts]**

Crescent stiffened in his chair as soon as he heard the music.

This song was familiar — the pounding base, the lyrics—

Oh no.

 _Sixer._

"Turn that music off _now!"_ Crescent barreled into the gift shop as Sixer's tails started to curl and he started reaching for the hem of his sweater. "Maria — snap him out of it!"

"With what?!" Maria grabbed Sixer's hands and pulled them away from his sweater with some difficulty as Wendy turned off the music. Despite that, Crescent could still feel the beat pounding its way into his bones.

"Put him ta sleep or somethin'," Crescent suggested quickly. "Before he goes any further!"

Maria fidgeted at the suggestion, but when Sixer started to pull his arms out of her grip she barked loudly, "Sleep!"

Sixer froze, his tails up in a fan shape behind his back. His stance wavered, and he started to fall backwards as his glazed eyes closed. Maria planted a foot and pulled on Sixer to keep him upright as Stanley moved to catch him. As soon as Stanley was supporting Sixer, Maria released his arms.

"What's…going on?" Wendy asked with an unnerved expression.

"That's what I'd like to know," Maria said.

Crescent looked at Stanley with a grim expression. Stanley saw the look and nodded, then started dragging Sixer into the living room.

Maria burst through the door ahead of Crescent, Wendy following behind him as Stanley and Maria moved Sixer to the couch and lay him down on it.

Stanley stepped back as Maria moved forward to look Sixer over. He locked eyes with Crescent. "How bad is it?"

"She shouldn't hear about it until she's 30," Crescent replied, nodding back to Wendy.

"What?" Wendy frowned.

"I'm serious." Crescent turned and looked at her with such an intense gaze that she took a step back.

Wendy looked over at Stanley — who had a similar look on his face — and held up a CD disk. "Okay. So, what, is he gonna react like that to _everything_ on my playlist?"

"Depends on what you got on there."

" _I'd_ like to know what happened," Maria spoke up. She rose from where she had been kneeling next to the couch. "That didn't look like a normal seizure, especially since it stopped as soon as he konked out."

She was quick on the draw.

"Get back to the counter, Wendy," Stanley said. "We'll handle things from here."

Wendy frowned, then sighed irritably and nodded before heading back out of the living room.

As soon as she did, Maria turned her worried gaze to Crescent. "Please. What _was_ that?"

She sounded younger than he suspected she was supposed to be.

"Might as well clear the air," Stanley said. "If he hasn't told her yet."

"He _hasn't_ because he _blocked_ it," Crescent replied. Laying the truth of the matter bare had been one of the first things he'd done with his other self. Stanley had asked how badly things had gone, and he hadn't liked the results.

Crescent didn't know how Maria was going to react.

"Blocked?" Maria's brow furrowed. Her gaze moved back to Sixer; his tails had curled over his lower half in a manner that Crescent would have said was defensive.

Maria turned slowly and looked back at Crescent. Her expression had changed from worried to a darker look. "What did he do to him."

"It's not what he did to _him,_ it's what he did to _us."_

Maria's eyes widened. "What."

"That three-sided moron liked human entertainment a bit too much. He experimented with it with all _four_ of us." Crescent's jaw tightened; he could still feel the beat from Wendy's music, even if the sensation of the rhythm was fading. "You ever been in any clubs, kid?"

"Clubs? No, I—" Maria cut herself off. Crescent watched as her eyes widened, and her hands curled slowly into fists that were clenched so tightly he thought her nails were digging in and causing her to bleed. Her eyes narrowed. "That _bastard._ "

Maria hadn't seemed like the kind of person to swear in normal human words. It caught Crescent by surprise.

"How far did he go?"

"Let's just say that Sixer wasn't pulling off his sweater fer nothin'."

The color drained slowly from Maria's face. "And that was all four of you. Even the kids?"

Crescent nodded.

Stanley looked as furious as he had been when Crescent first told him that Cipher had forced all four of them to strip as a part of his twisted "entertainment." Crescent didn't blame him, considering that the kids shouldn't have had to deal with something like that. They'd only been 12 when this whole thing started.

Maria, on the other hand, looked like a mix between horrified and downright _murderous._ Crescent could feel the air growing slowly warmer. "That demonic, monstrous — gah! I wish I'd given him more than I did when I blasted him in Sixer's head! When he gets here he's gonna know what it means to piss off a World Jumper!"

"I don't think that's the full story."

Crescent turned at the voice, blinking in surprise. When did Stanford get here?

Maria noticed him standing near the stairs as well and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When they arrived here — you remember that you asked me to get him to use the shower?" Stanford looked grim.

Crescent's eyes widened.

Maria nodded slowly, looking between the two. "Yeah…." There was a cautious tone to her voice, like she wasn't sure whether or not to take her anger up a level.

Stanford hesitated. "Someone's branded him with handprints in multiple places. And judging by the positioning of the handprints as well as their general shape, I am going to assume that Cipher allowed someone to use my counterpart in…sexual acts."

The temperature of the room suddenly dropped as Maria stared at Stanford in utter shock.

"You didn't—"

"I didn't know she did _that_ ," Crescent replied to Stanley. "She's part of the reason he blacked out; I just knew—"

"Pyronica _raped_ him."

Crescent looked back at Maria at the low growl her voice had taken on.

"That's what you're saying, isn't it?" Maria looked between Crescent and Stanford. Her fists were still clenched — in fact, they were trembling.

Crescent pressed his mouth into a straight line. Stanford looked pale at the idea.

" _Now_ I know why Alcor said he wanted dibs on a Henchmaniac — well _I'm_ getting in line," Maria hissed furiously. "How _dare_ they treat you all like that. How _dare_ they think they can throw you around as much as they want. _How_ _ **dare**_ _they take advantage when you can't say no!"_

The temperature in the room was rising again, and Crescent realized now that it was coming _from_ Maria. This kind of anger…this was something else.

But it seemed like the anger was honest.

"…I hadn't realized that he was that cruel," Stanford said after a moment. "Ciphers are many things, but — that?"

"Oh, _trust_ me, he could be _that_ and _more,"_ Crescent replied. "I was able to handle that kinda thing better than the kids and Sixer; they're gonna have similar reactions to the music — but Sixer goes further."

Maria hissed through her teeth.

"We're gonna need a list," Stanley said.

"Just give me some time with Wendy's playlist and I'll get started on that whenever ya need me to."

"Need to let Sixer sleep it off for a few hours," Maria muttered. "Need to figure out _something_ that I can do with him that will keep _both_ our minds off this." She looked over at Stanford. "Where were the marks?"

"Are you certain you—"

"Yes."

Stanford hesitated. When he saw the looks Stanley, Crescent, and Maria were giving him, he sighed. "He has a pair on his hips, a pair on his shoulders, a pair on his chest, a pair on his buttocks, and a pair on his inner thighs."

Maria hissed through her teeth, complexion almost white. Crescent got the feeling that Stanford didn't need to go any further.

"Yeah, I'm contesting Alcor for dibs," Maria said. "I'm going to go blow off some steam by jumping in the lake. If you hear anything about a part of it turning into a steam bath, that's me. I'll be back when I'm calm and wake up Sixer if he isn't awake by then."

With that, she turned and stormed out of the house without another word.

Crescent, Stanford, and Stanley all blinked blankly at the display, then exchanged looks.

"…how badly did he treat you, for my counterpart to end up this way?" Stanford asked quietly.

Crescent looked over at Stanley, who nodded.

"The moment my brother stopped bein' himself was the same time _he_ said we were less than nothing."

Crescent's grim voice only caused Stanford to become even more concerned.

"There's so much about this that my counterparts and I weren't aware of." Stanford shook his head. His expression hardened. "I'm going to find Fiddleford and see if he needs any help. I don't intend to let Cipher get away with this."

He promptly dashed out the door, leaving Crescent and Stanley alone with an unconscious Sixer.

"Might as well get this over with," Stanley muttered. "Come on; I'm sure I've got a CD player and headphones somewhere."

"Right." Crescent nodded, then followed his counterpart back into the gift shop.

 **So...yeah.**

 **This chapter hurt to write, and it left me mad at Cipher and Pyronica, and mentally exhausted and shaken. I'm sure you can see why.**

 **...I'll see you guys next week with the next chapter.**


	13. Confusion

**Chapter 13 - Confusion**

"Sixer?"

Sixer stirred at the Guildmaster's voice, opening his eyes sluggishly.

The Guildmaster had that strange furrowed-brow expression that he hadn't been able to figure out yet.

But there was something else burning in her eyes, too.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Sixer blinked at the question. Was he? The last thing he remembered was being in the gift shop with the Guildmaster and Stanley.

Did that mean…

"I'm fine, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster didn't look certain at his answer, but she nodded. "Crescent filled me in on some of the things that happened. You should know that none of…what happened _before,_ when you blacked out, happened this time. I knocked you out before you could go too far."

Sixer's brow furrowed in minor confusion. "…Why?"

The question caused the Guildmaster to blink in surprise. "What do you mean? Sixer, I didn't _mean_ for that to happen — it was an accident. I'm never going to take advantage of you like that. It wouldn't be right."

…what?

That didn't make any sense. Before, the blackouts had been purposeful — the Master had said that Pyronica wanted him, and that was it. How could the Guildmaster cause one _by accident?_

He wasn't sure what to make of this.

"I mean it," the Guildmaster said. "I'm not taking advantage of you like that. It's a breach of the boundaries I set up at the start — it doesn't seem like something you would do under normal circumstances, and it's not something _I_ would like you to do. Okay?"

Something clicked in Sixer's head at that. Right. Her guidelines. So, she was adding the events of his blackouts to them as something that was not allowed.

"If that's your decision," Sixer replied.

The Guildmaster's mouth was pressed into a straight line. She sighed a moment later. "Come on. Mizar's outside with Pine and Star. I'm gonna…leave you with them for a bit. I've got to go talk to Alcor about something."

Sixer nodded, then pushed himself into a sitting position before rising from the couch. He followed the Guildmaster out of the Shack and into the clearing.

Mizar was sitting on the porch, braiding Star's hair while Pine watched.

"And then Wendy went and—hi Sixer, Maria!" Mizar looked over as the Guildmaster stepped off the porch.

Sixer blinked at the greeting. He saw the Guildmaster watching him out of the edge of his vision, so he gave a slow nod.

"You guys mind keeping an eye on Sixer for a bit?" the Guildmaster asked. "I want to talk to your brother, Mizar."

Mizar blinked. "Okay, sure. What about?"

"You said he called dibs on a henchmaniac? I know which one it is and I'm contesting him for the first hit."

The Guildmaster's tone dropped into something that sounded like she was ready to attack someone at a moment's notice. Sixer looked over at her with an attentive look.

Mizar's eyebrows rose. " _Oh._ Well, if you want to talk to him, then he can become physical in the house without needing a deal."

The Guildmaster nodded. "Okay. Sixer, I'll be back in a bit." She turned and jogged towards one of the other four Shacks, leaving him with his niece, nephew, and Mizar.

Mizar tapped the porch next to her, looking up at Sixer with a curious, expectant look as she did.

…well, he was going to be here for some time. And the Guildmaster hadn't told him _not_ to follow along with what she told him. He moved over and sat down next to her, not really looking at her as she went back to braiding Star's hair.

Pine moved closer to Sixer, causing Sixer to look over at him. "Are you okay, Grunkle Sixer?"

Sixer blinked at the question. "I am fine."

Mizar snorted. "If you _were,_ you wouldn't be following Maria around like a lost puppy."

Pine shifted at that while Sixer's gaze moved to the ground. "M-Mizar—"

"I know, kid. This isn't something that you asked for. But Sixer's still not himself." Mizar finished the braid and tied it off with a hair tie. "There we go." She looked over at Sixer and Pine. "Maria is doing what she can in order to help him recover, but it sounds like she's hitting a bit of a roadblock."

Pine nodded, averting his gaze.

"Hey, Dipdop. It's gonna be okay." Mizar reached over and patted Pine on the shoulder. "We'll figure things out. And Maria knows more things about your grunkle now, so she can help!"

"What do you mean?" Star turned and looked at Mizar with a tilt of her head.

Sixer blinked. Star was _talking to_ Mizar, who wasn't in control of her actions?

"Maria knows why my brother wants Pyronica's head now," Mizar said matter-of-factly. "Things are going to be better."

Sixer felt a chill run down his spine as Star and Pine exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"How?" Star asked. "Th-that was — was —"

"How does she _know?"_ Pine demanded. "A-and how do _you_ know?"

Sixer's gaze flicked to them, then looked back at the ground.

"My bro-bro knows _lots_ of things," Mizar replied. "And Stanley said something happened that made Maria go dunk herself in the lake. And if she wants Pyronica's head then that means she knows about what happened."

"Oh," Star and Pine said quietly.

"…then, she _doesn't_ intend to make him do that?" Star asked.

Sixer shook his head, causing the other three to look at him. "The Guildmaster said she counted it as stepping past boundaries that should not be."

Star's eyes widened.

Mizar nodded, expression serious. "Good. This is a safe place for you guys; you're not gonna have to do things like that. Not on our watch." She rubbed Star's head affectionately. "Grunkle Sphinx already said you don't have to use your powers if you don't like the idea of it. So Grunkle Sixer isn't going to have to do things that he wouldn't normally do, either."

Star and Pine exchanged looks.

Sixer didn't look at any of them, keeping his gaze on the ground. The Guildmaster was the final word on things, and Cipher had been chaotic. While the Guildmaster wasn't Cipher, that didn't mean she was his complete opposite, nor was she predictable.

And the Guildmaster could go back on her word and he wouldn't so much as protest; that was her decision, not his. She might still change her mind….

"Enough of that! I think we need to think about something else." Mizar grinned. "How about we talk about what you guys think of _our_ Gravity Falls?"

Mizar was asking for _opinions._

Sixer didn't _have_ opinions. His ears pulled back a little at the thought.

"Um…" Pine frowned. "It's…different?"

Mizar motioned at him. "Keep going, Dipdop. What makes it different?"

Pine fidgeted a little under her stare. "Weirdmageddon…isn't here. A-and there's a lot more of us than I was…expecting."

Mizar frowned, tilted her head, then nodded. "Yeah, I'll take that. That is pretty different."

"But _he's_ still—"

"We know, Star. And the people in town are gonna do everything they can to make sure they can beat him back." Mizar patted Star on her shoulder. "And besides — there's a lot of us here! Cipher's not gonna know what hit him when he gets here and finds five families of Pines standing against him!" She threw back her head and laughed.

Pine gave a small, shaky smile in response, but he glanced over at Sixer as he did and his smile faltered. Sixer hardly glanced up at him.

"What about you, Sixer?"

Sixer's ear flicked at the question, and he looked up a little and met Mizar's gaze.

"What do you think about this dimension?" Mizar pressed.

Sixer held her gaze for a moment, then looked back down at the grass.

"It's…confusing."

Mizar shifted next to him. "Confusing? What do you mean?"

The answer spilled out of him without much prompting.

"The Guildmaster is unpredictable. _You_ are all unpredictable. I expect to be told to do something for _her_ and I find that the Guildmaster does it _for_ _me_. I don't understand. If the Guildmaster chose me to serve _her,_ why doesn't she have me do so?"

The statement was met with silence.

Sixer remained looking at the ground for a moment, then looked up slowly.

Mizar was staring at him with a wide-eyed expression that looked like some form of shock.

"Sweet Moses, _wow."_ Mizar blinked. "Okay. Um…maybe try not to think of your situation as one where you're serving her?"

Sixer frowned. "But—"

Mizar held up a hand. "Let me finish."

Sixer closed his mouth, blinking.

"Maria isn't using you because, as far as I've _heard_ from Vash and Knives, she's been used before, and she doesn't like the idea of using other people in the way she was used. So she chooses to do things of her own free will instead, and that includes making sure that you're okay. Grunkle Sphinx put it this way — you're not servants, you're a _responsibility._ So Maria's just being responsible and making sure that you're okay."

Sixer blinked. A…a responsibility? Him? He didn't see that as making much sense.

The Guildmaster had said that before as well, but…what did she mean by it? Was it what Mizar meant?

Mizar saw the blank look on his face and sighed. "It's not like you can serve her to the best of your ability if you're not feeling okay, right?"

Oh.

Still, Sixer frowned. "But…I do feel okay."

"Not in here you don't." Mizar poked Sixer in the forehead, causing him to go cross-eyed for a second as he tracked her finger's movement. "You don't notice it because you're used to it, but you're sick, Grunkle Sixer. _Really_ sick. And thinking that you're going to serve Maria just because you're bound to her isn't going to help you get better."

Sixer blinked. It felt like some of the words didn't make sense together. But he wasn't about to question Mizar. She was in control of his nephew; she was higher than he was.

So he simply nodded in response.

Mizar looked at Sixer with a strange expression that he had yet to learn how to translate. "You'll get it. It's gonna take a while, but you'll get it."

 **Time Break**

When the Guildmaster came back, Sixer was watching while Pine used his abilities, having grown a giant flower in the middle of the clearing. Said flower was a daisy in every sense of the word except for its unusual size, as well as its purple, sparkly coloring.

"That looks _really_ beautiful," the Guildmaster said as she came to a stop next to the porch. "You've got some real beauty in your abilities, Pine. That's awesome."

Pine looked over from where he was sitting cross-legged in the grass. His eyes were glowing with a bright blue energy that usually accompanied showings of power like this.

Sixer could see that his expression was carefully guarded, but at the same time, there was something else there. Something he couldn't identify.

"I've been giving him little challenges to work out," Mizar said. She was sitting on one of the petals, grinning. Star was near her, under one of the petals, her hair glowing like a night sky in the shade. "I'm thinking of asking him to make that Alice in Wonderland flower garden next!"

The Guildmaster chuckled. "That's going to be an interesting challenge." She looked over at Sixer. "How do you feel, Sixer?"

Sixer blinked at the question. How _did_ he?

He'd spent most of his time with Mizar, Star, and Pine mulling over what Mizar had suggested. How the Guildmaster didn't see him as someone to order around, to fulfill tasks she needed completed. How she might see him as more of a "responsibility."

How she seemed to see him as not at his full capacity.

"…confused," he said, quietly.

The Guildmaster sat down on the porch next to him. The wood groaned under her weight. "About what?"

It took Sixer a moment to put together an answer that made sense to him. "Mizar said you saw me as a responsibility. That I'm not…meant…to serve you."

He didn't miss the way the Guildmaster's face shifted at that, but she didn't interrupt him when he continued.

"I don't understand how. I don't understand why. I am someone who is meant to be controlled, who is—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there."

Sixer looked at the Guildmaster when she spoke sternly.

"Sixer, how much do you remember of your life _before_ Cipher?"

Before?

"When you fought against him — when you were a _kid_ and you were able to _decide on your own_ what you wanted to do," the Guildmaster continued. "Do you remember that, Sixer?"

Sixer blinked.

Childhood? His time before Cipher?

The questions brought back blurred images — a beach? A boat? — and then ones that were more in focus — the woods, the town, creatures that hadn't made sense in the beginning, first contact, a flash of blue and then—

Sixer bent forward and gritted his teeth as a flash of _burning_ pain hit his chest when his memories pulled him back to some of the sharper memories of his time on the other side of the portal, running from the triangular being he'd once called friend and muse and later called Master.

It was a burning he hadn't felt in _centuries._

"Grunkle Sixer!" Star rushed over as the pain faded and Sixer pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He felt a hand on his back, and blinked his vision back into focus.

Star was in front of him, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"

Sixer rubbed at his chest absently as he looked back at her with a tired expression. "It will pass. I am fine."

" _What_ will pass?" the Guildmaster asked. There was a tone in her voice that sounded familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time. "All I asked was if you still remembered — does that happen if you try to?"

Sixer shook his head. "I…I remember parts of what I was like before. But I cannot remember everything. With a piece of my soul absent, there are some parts of my past that are impossible to remember."

The Guildmaster remained silent while Star puts a hand on Sixer's knee.

"It's the stubbornness, isn't it?" the Guildmaster said after a moment. "That's tied to your Will?"

Sixer registered the word, but the definition slid out of his mental grasp. He felt his chest burn a little in response, and he nodded.

That sort of pain was one he had not been expecting, and it was not something that he was capable of ignoring, either.

"I do not see a point in remembering that which is painful," Sixer said after a moment. He closed his eyes, looking away from Star and the Guildmaster. "That who I was before is not who I am now. There is nothing that can be done to reverse what I am now. Why fix someone who was meant to be this way by —"

"Because if I left my fate up to the will of the multiverse, I would be much more of a mindless husk than you are now."

Sixer's ears flicked at that while Star quietly gasped.

"Sixer, I've been controlled before; I know what it's like and I _hate_ it down to my very core. If you think that I'm going to stand by and _let_ you be trapped in this state and _let_ you be pulled around by me in order to get you to do things that _I_ like, you have another thing coming," the Guildmaster said briskly. "I _will_ find a way to return your free will to you, whether as a result of my own actions or the actions of someone else I or we happen to find. I swear it."

Swore it?

"You were _not_ meant to be like this — no one _ever_ _is_."

Sixer looked up at the Guildmaster as she paused.

"Freedom is a right that you were born with, Sixer," the Guildmaster continued. "And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that you get that back. I _hate_ seeing you bound like this, but until I can see your willpower returned to you, it's _my responsibility_ to see you recover in other ways from what Cipher did to you."

Sixer blinked. The Guildmaster spoke with a tone in her voice that made the ache in his chest start to come back again, along with a single word — conviction? — before that too slid away from his mind.

If it was associated with willpower, he could not attempt to cling to it, else he would only bring himself more pain.

But what the Guildmaster _said…_ for some reason it stuck.

So, while he nodded in response to the Guildmaster's words, he quietly went over her words again.

She did not like him being bound — either to her or to another being.

She knew that he had not been in this state for his entire life — and indeed, the memories that were starting to resurface and bother him again, faint as they were, proved that much. The burning of his soul at the mere memory of its missing piece informed him of that.

She swore she would find a way to return his willpower to him.

…what exactly that would entail, he didn't know. He would have to wait and see what the Guildmaster decided.


	14. Shopping Trip

**Chapter 14 – Shopping Trip**

"So, what are we doing today?" Mizar looked over at Sphinx, raising an eyebrow.

"We need to get these two something to fit in a little better, and I'm looking for supplies to make something," Sphinx replied. "My kitsune counterpart can't be using shampoo that's good for his tails; they don't have very much luster to them." He padded along the sidewalk, nodding to the people walking past the four of them. "I just need a few basic supplies, and I can get something whipped together before his fur starts falling out."

"Ooooh." Mizar nodded. "That makes sense. So, we gotta go to the grocery store then?"

"That's the idea." Sphinx looked at Star and Pine, who were looking at the two of them with confused, but curious expressions. "We should stop by the mall first, I think, and let you two pick something out."

"Let….us…?" Star blinked in surprise. "Y-you mean it?"

"Of course I mean it. I'm not about to have the two of you go without personal possessions for the rest of your lives." Sphinx looked at the two of them with a kind expression.

Star and Pine exchanged wide-eyed looks. They'd only been here a month and _already_ they were getting things? Things of their own?

Mizar ruffled Pine's hair in between his antlers. "Hey, we said we'd make sure you guys were okay and stuff, right? So why not?"

Pine did something impulsive and hugged his sister's counterpart.

Mizar stumbled to a stop with a noise of surprise. The sound made Pine look up and start to pull back, only for Mizar to lean down and hug him back, making him stiffen for a moment.

"You kids are gonna be fine," Mizar said determinedly. "It's gonna take a bit, but we're gonna make sure that you come out on top. Got it?"

Pine blinked in surprise, but he didn't make any attempts to move away from Mizar's embrace. It felt…nice. He wasn't sure why, but he felt he could be there for a long time.

Eventually, unfortunately, Mizar did let him go and ruffle his hair again. "Let's have a look around and see what we can find, huh? I bet we can find something you guys would like to have."

Pine nodded. "Okay."

Mizar moved ahead of Sphinx then and made a beeline for the mall, leading the others behind.

Star looked at Pine with a wide-eyed gaze. "It almost feels too good to be true." There were little pinpricks of wet at the corners of her eyes – it didn't look like she was going to start crying soon, but her eyes were definitely ready for it.

Pine nodded at her words, looking between Mizar and Sphinx to see if they heard. If they had, they weren't giving any indication of it. "Y-yeah. They're letting us do things that…that we haven't."

He honestly wasn't sure _how_ to describe what he was feeling. As much as it was a relief to not be forced to do things that he didn't like – and hadn't liked for so long – the fact that Mizar was nice to him despite all the things he'd done was more than a little off-putting.

"All the worlds we've been to – nobody's liked us. So…so why are the people here liking us now?"

"They're _us,"_ Star replied. "They're us and they like the idea of us being safe."

As much as that was true, a part of Pine was still expecting Mizar to snap at any minute. She said that her uncles and her brother were _demons_ – he'd even _met_ Alcor, the suited counterpart who had helped Stanley take control of Crescent.

No matter what they said, it hadn't been a rescue they pulled. They'd just replaced Cipher.

And there was a chance that he could take them back too.

Which….

Pine frowned. "He could have taken us back by now, couldn't he?"

That got Sphinx to turn his head towards them. "What do you mean by that?"

Pine stiffened a little when Sphinx asked the question. Alternate to Grunkle Sixer or not, the fact that he was more mythical animal than man was still an unnerving sight. "U-uh, w-well, he's got a lot of power behind him, so—"

"He hasn't gotten through the unicorn barriers around the houses yet." Mizar turned and looked at the two of them. "He can only get in your head when you're asleep, right?"

Pine blinked a couple times, surprised at the sudden question. "Uh—"

 _"_ _Right?_ Come on, Pine, he got into your Grunkles' heads when they were asleep. Remember when Gideon tried to steal the deed to the house? He was in Grunkle Stanley's head – and Grunkle Crescent's head – but he only got in because he was _asleep._ And you're not asleep right now, so he can't take you back, and he can't break into the house because of the unicorn barrier." Mizar put her hands on her hips. "He's _not_ getting you back."

There was a conviction in her voice that caught Pine by surprise.

"We're not gonna give up when we know you guys need help," Mizar continued. "Now, the unicorns might not have said that I'm 'pure of heart' or a real do-gooder or whatever, but I'm not gonna just stand by! Family sticks together, even when we're basically versions of ourselves from other dimensions. I don't care that I've already got a brother, you're my brother too, Pine."

Pine and Star exchanged looks as they leaned back a little in surprise. They hadn't been expecting this kind of outburst, much less Mizar proclaiming the two of them as family.

Mizar's expression softened, and she moved over and hugged them both, catching them by surprise. "We're family. And family protects family."

Star and Pine blinked, then relaxed into the hug as Mizar held them there on the street.

Pine didn't know how long they were there for until Sphinx cleared his throat from somewhere behind Mizar.

"I don't mean to break you up, but…"

Mizar let Star and Pine go and nodded. "I know, Grunkle Sphinx. Let's get those errands taken care of and then we can talk things out a little more, okay?" She looked at Star and Pine with a grin.

The two nodded, looking a little dumbfounded.

Mizar nodded in response. "Good. Let's get you guys a few things and that stuff for Grunkle Sphinx to make that shampoo for Grunkle Sixer."

 **Time Break**

Spending the day with Mizar and Sphinx ended up being a little more nerve-wracking for Pine and Star than they had anticipated.

The mall was _full_ of people, and _all_ of them ended up staring at Pine and Star at one point or another, which made them uneasy.

They were used to staring, yes – usually angry glares from people who wanted them dead – but these ones were wary. Pitying. Just sad and curious overall and neither one of them really knew how to handle it other than stay close to Mizar and Sphinx and hope that the staring would eventually stop and they wouldn't feel like there was ice going down their backs every second.

The stares didn't let up.

Star shifted a little closer to Pine while Mizar led them through a craft store, weaving between the aisles. She'd told them to keep an eye out for something that caught their interest, but nothing had so far.

"So many eyes," Star murmured.

"Grunkle Sphinx and Mizar promised we wouldn't be taken," Pine said. He gripped Star's hand. "The people in town know what happened too, remember? At the party?"

Star nodded.

"So, we're going to be fine," Pine said, although there wasn't much certainty in his voice. "Mizar said family protects family. They'll protect us if something happens."

Star nodded again. They were their lifelines.

Mizar eventually stopped by the back wall of the craft store, which was _covered_ in knitting materials, and looked at Star and Pine with a frowning expression. "You guys didn't feel like grabbing anything? I thought you'd like the look of some of those journals we passed by, Pine."

Pine shrugged. "What use would I have for them?"

Mizar stared blankly. "Uh…maybe write stuff about what you know about your powers? Thoughts about what is different about this dimension compared to all the others? I don't know, it'd be _your_ journal. If you got it. It's not like I'm gonna be peering over your shoulder every single day wanting to know what you've written. I don't do that to my bros."

Pine blinked while Star looked between the two of them. He didn't quite look like he knew what to think of that.

"You…you mean…we could do whatever we liked with it and you and Grunkle Sphinx wouldn't get mad?" Star asked. It felt like her heart was starting to swell with – with something. Something she hadn't felt in a long time.

Unlike Sixer, she was able to identify it in a few seconds.

 _Excitement._

"Why would I get mad? It'd be your stuff." Mizar shrugged. "You do what you feel like with it."

Star's eyes widened. She started bouncing a little on her feet. "I—I think I know what I'm gonna get."

"Well, then go get it! I'll be paying for anything you two pick up here."

Star nodded and ran back into the shelves, leaving Pine standing there with a confused expression.

Mizar noticed the look and rolled her eyes. "Go on, Pine. It'll be okay."

Pine started at that statement, but he didn't move from where he was standing. "A-are you sure? Are you sure that you're not gonna – gonna change your mind on that or anything?"

"Why should I? It'd be your stuff; I'm not supposed to touch it." Mizar grinned a bit. "So take it easy, all right? Come on, I told you that you're basically my brother even if you're from another dimension. So I'm gonna treat you like a little brother."

"…even if I'm centuries older? Maybe?"

Mizar blinked at Pine's correction, then shrugged. "Eh. We'll figure something out, brobro. Go ahead and pick something out that you think you like. Like I told Star, I'll pay for it. Go on."

A part of Pine was a little hesitant at the idea of looking into getting something for his own, but something else – something long-buried and thought to have ben snuffed out a long time ago – started to stir at the back of his mind.

The part of him that had been eager to solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls as soon as he had set foot in it.

His hands twitched.

Star came back, practically skipping across the tile floor and with two journals in her arms. "Here!" She handed one of the journals over to Pine, the cover colored a deep forest green with gold bits on the binding and the corners of the cover. The one she held close to her chest was a deep purple. "If we're gonna figure things out, might as well write them down, right?"

"If we can remember how." Pine took the journal from her and looked it over. He could feel Mizar watching them both with a curious expression, but he didn't look over at her just yet.

Something about holding the journal in his hands felt… _right,_ somehow.

He ran his fingers over the bare cover. It needed a design – something to mark it as his.

"I guess that settles that?" Mizar asked, looking between the two of them.

Star looked at Mizar and nodded. Her mouth was doing something that she hadn't done in years – it was stretching up, not down, curving into the opposite of a frown.

It hurt to do it, but at the same time it felt _so right_ to smile again.

Mizar showed her teeth in a grin. "All right. Let's get these paid for and find Grunkle Sphinx. I bet he's got everything he's gonna need for Grunkle Sixer's soap."

The twins nodded, then followed Mizar to the register near the store's entrance, each holding their journals in their hands.

 _Theirs._ The thought made Star's heart soar. It wasn't something from their old dimension – like her cat or Waddles or anything that used to sit in the Mystery Shack – but it was something she could call her own. And Mizar had said that they weren't gonna tell them what to write in it, either.

She was looking forward to figuring that out on her own.

 **Change in POV**

Mizar watched as Star happily showed Sphinx the journal they'd picked up in the craft store. She could see the pleased flick in his tail and the proud gleam in his eyes as Star hugged the journal close.

"Thanks for helping me with this," Mizar said to the specter only she could see.

The black and gold-eyed Dipper hovering in the air next to her nodded. "They need to be able to get back to being themselves. I just wish I could help Grunkle Sixer more, but he's blocked himself off. Maria's looking into ways to bring him back out into the open, but that is going to take time."

"Time we don't have much of, if we've only got 11 months left." Mizar frowned. "I hope she can find a way to get in, because it looks like she's starting to chip at _something."_

"Starting to." Alcor nodded in agreement. "But those chips have hardly made a dent in anything. Out of all of them, he is going to take the longest to heal, even with the deals I've made with you and Maria. I may be a demon with all of Cipher's power, but even _that_ is limited."

Mizar nodded. "At least we're making progress somewhere. Come on – wanna watch Grunkle Sphinx try to put this shampoo stuff together and see how many times he gets the results wrong?"

Alcor grinned back at his sister, teeth sharp and far more in number than a normal human's. "I'm always up for some chaotic science."


	15. Relearning Halloween

**Chapter 15 – Relearning Halloween**

It had been _way too long_ since Crescent had last thought about Halloween. The blank look he'd given Stanley was more than enough of an indicator that it had slipped his mind at some point, although it didn't take him long to remember everything about the spooks and scares that he'd once done in his Mystery Shack by himself.

And this year looked like it was only going to get even more spooky than the last.

"We're goin' all out, huh?" Crescent looked up at Stanley as he held on tightly to the ladder's base. Height was _clearly_ no longer a problem. "And you got Stanford ta help ya with this?"

"Yup! Him and Fiddleford. Who knew nerds could make such creepy stuff, right?" Stanley laughed. He pushed the giant, black humanoid-looking animatronic into place on the roof over the porch, causing the cylindrical head to be peering over the edge of the roof at anyone who happened to walk up to the door.

"Okay, so they said this thing's gonna have an actual second mouth that's gonna pop out at the kids when they come up to the door." Stanley patted the animatronic's head. "With the lights we got set under this, it _should_ really spook 'em! An' the haunted house attractions inside are only gonna get better from here, with all the stuff Stanford's got up his sleeves. Oh, man, no one's gonna be able ta keep their heads on straight when they finish getting a tour!" He laughed loudly, then started back down the ladder.

Crescent chuckled, but it wasn't all that strong compared to his counterpart's. He was mostly relieved that he wasn't going to be the one doing the scaring.

He had far too much experience in that.

"Come on, let's get—"

"Hey, Crescent? Stanley?"

Stanley cut himself off and blinked as Maria approached. Crescent turned away from the ladder as she came to a stop, looking concerned and worried.

What was bothering her now?

"What's with that look?" Stanley asked, frowning. "Somethin' happen or—"

"No, I just – I'd like to talk to Crescent about…something about Sixer."

Crescent frowned while Maria's eyebrows pushed themselves together more worriedly. "Sixer? You know you could just…ask _him,_ right?"

"I want an outside opinion before I go asking him about what I'm trying to solve." Maria replied.

"Solve _what?"_ Stanley frowned. "If it's somethin' ya need a Ford's help for, why don't you—"

"I want to know why his emotions are sealed off."

Stanley shut his mouth as Maria looked between the two of them.

Crescent was surprised at first – she came to _him_?

But then he remembered the state that his brother was in, and who had caused that in the first place.

Crescent frowned as his anger bubbled up, but then he sighed and pushed it back as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kid, yer not gonna like the answer."

"I don't expect myself to."

Well, at least there was that. Crescent guessed that after finding out about everything that had caused Sixer to black out, Maria had gotten used to the idea that anything she learned about Sixer was going to be not liked.

Crescent glanced over at Stanley, who rolled his eyes and nodded before motioning at Crescent to start talking.

It took Crescent a moment to remember what exactly had happened.

"Well, it happened after a bounty hunter came in with another Ford; claimed that he'd seen a bounty out and wanted the reward. That's what, uh, got the whole hunting thing started. So when another Cipher came ta get the guy who got dropped off, Ford reacted or somethin,' I guess."

Considering that the Cipher had managed to put Sixer's counterpart into a hypnotic trance and scrambled his brain to put him in that naïve "I don't think Cipher's a bad guy" sort of state, Crescent figured Ford was reacting to that.

"Cause then you know who snatched him up an' was warnin' Ford against tryin' ta do somethin,' said we were all less than nothin' an' he shouldn't be questioning orders or anythin'."

Maria sucked in a breath through her teeth. Yeah, Crescent guessed that would get a reaction. He nodded.

"Then he sent Ford off ta get another him an' when he came back we threw him in a cell. I tried ta get Ford ta…"

What _had_ he done? It took him a moment to find the memory.

"…well, ya know, hold on ta _somethin'_ an' not give up, but he just…went blank."

Crescent demonstrated by waving a hand over his face, his expression going from a worried sort of look to an expression similar to Sixer's – emotionally blank, eyes hollow.

After a couple seconds, he blinked rapidly and shook his head, shaking off the expression. But by then, the look of horror on Maria's face had really sunk in.

"That's low," Maria said. "That's really, _really_ low. Of all the things that I was expecting – that was just—" She covered her mouth with one hand. "How long ago was that?"

It took Crescent a moment to remember.

"…I think he had two tails?" Crescent scratched his head. "Or maybe – nah, it was two. He got three when the whole 'invading other dimensions' thing started, and his tail split into two when we got a visiting demon."

"…that's 400 years," Maria said faintly.

Had it really been that long?

"That's _insane."_ Maria shook her head. "I kept my emotions _limited_ for an amount of time that doesn't even come to a _quarter_ of that time, and letting everything come back was…that was _painful."_

Wait, what?

Crescent raised an eyebrow. "You seriously pulled the same thing that Sixer did?"

"The Dark Arms – fighting against them was a _warzone_ of multiple dimensions." Maria ran a hand through her hair. "I couldn't deal with – with what was going on, since they'd used me to _start_ the chaos in the first place. Not to mention they'd…they'd gotten rid of my parents. Blasted them to ash, right in front of me, and I wasn't able to do anything to save them. I can't travel back in time – I've talked to people who can, just to see."

Oh geez. Crescent hadn't been expecting some of that. The Dark Arms guys who had a bounty on her head had killed her parents.

Maria's hand dropped from her head as she sighed loudly. "The Continuum Shift I activated in order to reverse the Dark Arms' damage keeps people from being able to travel back in time and see if there's anything that can be done about my parents. The damage the Dark Arms dealt was permanent – is permanent, to me. I can't…I can't stop them before they get started. It's impossible."

She covered her face with one hand and sighed again, but the sound was shaky. "...that's gonna have a hell of a kick when Sixer brings them back."

What.

"Bring them _back?_ " Stanley repeated. "What, that's what you're gonna be focusin' on now?"

"I – yeah. Yeah." Maria lowered her hand from her face. "So long as Sixer's like this, he's stuck, I think. I need to convince him somehow that it's safe for him to be human, to _act_ human, to show his true thoughts and feelings about one thing or another. If I…if I _can't,_ I don't…I don't know how far he's gonna be able to get."

The look on Crescent's face was sympathetic – but only for a moment. He pulled it back into a frown a moment later. "You're tackling somethin' that's gonna be almost impossible ta pull off, you know that. He's not gonna pull down those barriers very easily, 'specially if he's used ta them bein' up."

He's poked and prodded at Sixer himself, and nothing's happened. It made him wonder if Sixer was _ever_ going to let those barriers down, even with Maria poking at him.

"I know." Maria nodded. "Wildfire, she – as soon as I came home, she tried to get me to relax. It…wasn't exactly easy."

Wildfire? That wasn't a familiar name. Must've been a friend that Maria'd met somewhere at some point.

"It took a whack to the head and momentary loss of all my memories to really let me get back into balance with myself, but I don't want to do that to Sixer. Recovering those memories is…well, it's gonna hurt, and I don't want him to go through that hurt again. That would be stupid and harmful and – just, just no. I've experienced amnesia twice, it wasn't exactly fun getting some things back."

Crescent winced while Stanley frowned. Having all your memories wiped from your head not once but _twice?_ Crescent was glad not to have experienced that.

"Well, what are you gonna do, then?" Stanley asked. "He's _your_ problem remember?" He nodded across the clearing to where Sixer was sitting on Alex's porch, watching the three of them talk from a distance.

Maria frowned at the question. "That's really the problem here. I need to convince him to let his barriers down – I don't want to _tell_ him to let them down because that would mean altering his mind without his permission."

"You could get it from him," Crescent said. She was in control of Sixer – asking him if she could alter anything about him wasn't going to get a "no" from his brother. As much as Crescent might have been against the idea, he wasn't about to tell her what to do, either.

"He'd basically tell me I could do whatever I want with him," Maria replied with an irritated tone. "And I _don't_ want to go that route. He's not _less_ than me, he's _equal_ to me. That's a thought that's been difficult to get across to him."

Crescent stared at Maria. Where the _hell_ did _that_ come from. That was the _last_ thing he'd expected hearing from someone who was in control of his brother.

"At least I've gotten him to accept the fact that I'm not going to get him to do the things Cipher had him do, _and_ that I'm not using him as a punching bag. Among other things." Maria bared her teeth in frustration and shook her head sharply. "But what would be next? And why is it I get the feeling that things are going faster than they really should be."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Stanley replied. "If they're gettin' better faster than you think they should, blame Gravity Falls. Or somethin' in it. I'm sure Stanford or _somebody_ has done some study about Gravity Falls that talks about the general atmosphere of the place."

"I _hope_ that doesn't lead me in the direction of the Unified Theory of Weirdness, because I _highly doubt_ that would be the source of it," Maria replied pointedly. "A magnet does not a healing item from _several centuries of mental damage_ make."

…she was serious. She was _serious_ about this whole fixing what Cipher did thing.

Crescent wasn't sure what to think of that.

"But I do agree – it might be something about the aura of this place that's doing something, or maybe there's some other factor getting involved that I'm not aware of at the moment. But if it's giving me a _chance_ to get Sixer's emotions back before next August, I'll take it. But I need to keep pushing him."

"Well, push him," Stanley replied. "What do you think's gonna get those emotions out in the open?"

Crescent shook himself out of his startled stupor at Stanley's question. There was something about that…

"Maybe the question is, what made _her_ drop the barrier?" Crescent replied, looking at Stanley and nodding to Maria.

Maria blinked at the question. "What made – what, you mean besides the fact that I literally _lost my memory_ and the barrier went with that?"

"…yeah, I guess." Crescent scratched the back of his head, frowning. "If ya didn't get amnesia, what'd make it drop?"

Maria frowned. Then she folded her arms across her chest and rested her chin on one hand in thought. "What _would_ have made it drop…?"

It was a quiet moment before she started murmuring answers.

"The barrier didn't drop when I got home because as soon as I got dropped there after the Shift there was trouble that was starting to brew. I managed to kick it off with the help of everyone else, but I didn't let my barrier down then. I didn't let it down when I found Matthew in the Marvel/DC realm either, but I think I came close…I never felt like the world was safe enough for me to slow down and grieve for what had happened before, that was the—"

Maria cut herself off and blinked. "That's it. Sixer doesn't feel it's safe to drop the barrier – he doesn't even _register_ that it is. Thinking that he's not someone who can be treated like an equal probably plays a part in it too but – okay. Okay. I _think_ I know now what I should have been doing from be beginning."

Maria nodded to herself, and Crescent and Stanley exchanged looks. Clearly, neither one of them had caught on to what Maria was talking about.

"Care to enlighten us?" Stanley asked.

"Hm?" Maria looked up and blinked before realization crossed her face. "Oh. Pft. I need to show him more affection than I have been. Which means I have to let my inhibitions go a little and actually _hug_ the poor guy."

Stanley and Crescent stared at Maria with doubting expressions.

"You really think that's gonna work," Stanley said.

"I have to start somewhere," Maria replied. "And I should have started a long time ago."

"Two months does _not_ feel like a long time," Crescent said flatly.

"Figure of speech." Maria waved off the deadpan look. "Thanks for giving me the help. I really needed someone to talk to to figure this out, and knowing the circumstances for all this really helped, Cress."

Crescent blinked at that. He looked…a little befuddled. "Uh…your welcome? That's how it goes, right?"

Maria nodded at him with an encouraging grin. "I'll leave you guys to making that haunted house, then. Might want to make sure that the xenomorph up there doesn't list and fall off the awning."

Stanley looked back and bit back a curse when he saw that the inactive animatronic was leaning to one side. "Of all the – come on!" He ran back towards the ladder, Crescent on his heels.

"Think the kid knows what she's doin'?" Crescent asked as Stanley started up the ladder.

"Maybe? I dunno what goes through her head; do I look like a mind reader?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if ya were."

Meanwhile, Sixer's ears perked up as the Guildmaster approached. He had been watching her conversation between Crescent and Stanley, expecting her to, at some point, wave him over to them or finish the conversation and approach.

His tails shifted away from her as she sat down next to him. Instinct, to prevent them from becoming pinched underneath her weight.

"Hey." The Guildmaster looked at Sixer with a small smile. He didn't return it – he wasn't sure how. "You doing okay, Sixer?"

Sixer blinked at the question while the Guildmaster reached over and put a hand against his back. He stiffened, not having expected the contact.

A part of him waited for her to move her hand up from there, but it didn't. It remained in place. He hadn't experienced this before.

"I'm…"

 _Was_ he okay?

The Guildmaster had asked this question multiple times of him. Every time the answer was the same.

Or, it _should_ be the same, despite the changes of the others around him.

"I'm fine, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster frowned. "Got something on your mind, or is there something going on?"

Sixer blinked at the question. What brought on that question? He shook his head. "I don't understand what is happening here." He nodded over to the decoration project that Crescent and Stanley were undertaking. Stanford stepped out onto the porch as the two got the black, humanoid-alien animatronic finally settled into place on the roof. He looked around before stepping off and turning around to look up at the animatronic.

"You mean, why they're decorating?"

Sixer nodded.

The Guildmaster stared at him. "Did you forget about Halloween, Sixer?"

"Hallow-ween?" Sixer tried out the word, frowning. It sounded…familiar, but he wasn't sure from where.

"It's a celebration that takes place on the last day of October. The idea came from a tradition in other countries that this is when the spirits of the dead are most likely to roam among the living, and so people had to scare them off. It's turned into an easy day for people to scare each other and get candy from their neighbors." The Guildmaster pulled her hand away from Sixer's back and leaned against one of the wooden supports on the porch. "Gravity Falls has an extra day to celebrate it in the middle of summer, but Summerween has its own brand of traditions that the people here have started."

Oh.

Something about that sounded familiar, but Sixer wasn't sure from where. He nodded, but he didn't say anything. His gaze moved away from the fake creature that was settled on the roof. "Guildmaster, will we be required to participate in this?"

"If you don't feel up to it, no." The Guildmaster shook her head. "Not everyone gets into the Halloween spirit, so to speak, even if it's a pretty big thing around here – likely because of all the stuff that happens in Gravity Falls already." She chuckled. "We'll probably just hide in one of the Shacks if you're not up to dealing with people on the 31st. It's okay."

 _It's okay._

Sixer looked at the Guildmaster. Something about those last two words…he wasn't sure what it was, but something shifted in his chest. Instinct pushed it back down, preventing it from making known what exactly it was.

He remembered then that he probably shouldn't be staring at the Guildmaster, so he shifted his gaze to his feet instead.

"I'll leave it up to you, but I'm probably not gonna be going out trick-or-treating to get candy or anything like that," the Guildmaster said. "So, really, it's either handing out candy to kids who come up or just not interact with them and wait in one of the Shacks until the night's over. If that makes any sense."

Sixer's gaze moved around the clearing, taking in the different appearances the Shacks were taking: Stanford and Stanley were turning their home into a haunted house, Sphinx and Gargrunkle had caused their home to become more gothic, and Mizar's location had become something akin to an abandoned library.

All in preparation for this "Halloween," and Sixer knew very little about what was taking place.

"I…"

The Guildmaster turned her gaze away from Stanley and Stanford as they high-fived under the moving animatronic. "Hm?"

Sixer blinked at the sound, then turned his gaze a little to look at the Guildmaster. "It would be…acceptable, if I said I did not feel 'up to' any task pertaining to this event?"

The Guildmaster blinked in surprise, then recovered herself. "Yeah, that won't be a problem." She scooted back over and put a hand on Sixer's back again. He saw it coming this time, so he didn't stiffen up. The Guildmaster did not seem intent on moving her hand around. "Do you mind if I ask why you're not feeling up to anything involving Halloween?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then shook his head. "I…understand very little about it. It is not likely that I will be capable of assisting at the capacity that would be required."

The Guildmaster's expression fell a little. "Well, if that's how you feel about it, that's all right."

Sixer felt a strangely warm feeling expand out from the Guildmaster's hand. He shifted, sitting more upright as he blinked in surprise.

"It's been a while since I've participated in Halloween myself, so I'm gonna be mostly watching and handing out candy," the Guildmaster added. "I bet Alex would be okay with me helping out here, rather than being in any of the other Shacks. I mean, the decorations are cool and all but they'd probably expect us to get involved in the 'scaring kids half to death' routine and I'm not feeling up for that."

Ah.

Sixer mulled those words over. The Guilmdaster also felt she was not prepared to assist, but she was still going to make an attempt to? He wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Come on." The Guildmaster patted Sixer lightly on the back, then removed her hand and pushed herself to her feet. "Let's head in and see if Alex is okay with me helping him doing the handing out the candy thing."

…well, if she was so insistent on it, Sixer wasn't going to stop her.


	16. Meanwhile

**Posting early this week! Don't expect me to post this weekend - I'm gonna be doing things, and reaching the web may not be easy! I'll post at my usual time next week, though!**

 **Chapter 16 – Meanwhile**

Cipher was still incensed, but he had a direction to push that anger now instead of just letting it run rampant and destroy whatever was left of the planet that the Fearamid used to hover over.

He hovered in front of an open window, frowning down at the planet below. Earth was in its death throes, with volcanoes going off in some places. He'd taken a bite out of it at some point, and the core was starting to slow down and cool off as a result of its exposure to space. He hadn't heard any screams come from the surface in…

…well, time was an illusion anyway, so what did time matter to him?

"Hey, boss?"

Cipher didn't turn to look over at the entrance to his throne room as Pyronica stepped in with more of a confident air than she had any right to have.

"When are ya gonna bring your puppets back? I'm getting a little bored without having someone to play with." Pyronica stopped a respectful distance from the triangle. "That dimension is almost ours, right?"

Cipher didn't answer Pyronica – not right away. He watched as another portion of the planet below collapsed into the core.

"Boss?"

Cipher turned. _"THE BARRIER BETWEEN DIMENSIONS ISN'T WEAK ENOUGH YET FOR US TO BREAK IN. BRINGING FORDSY BACK IS ONLY GOING TO MAKE THINGS TAKE LONGER, SO DON'T GET YOUR PANTIES IN A TWIST."_

The terse tone in his voice made Pyronica lose her haughty stance, which was a good thing in Cipher's opinion. "Not even for a little bit?"

Cipher sighed in an annoyed tone. _"NO. THAT'S GOING TO MESS UP MY PLAN – EVEN IF IT'S HALLOWEEN OVER THERE AND THE BARRIER'S SLIGHTLY WEAKER THAN IT USUALLY IS AT ANY OTHER POINT OF THE YEAR. NO. WE'RE WAITING UNTIL THE END OF SUMMER, AND THAT'S IT."_

Pyronica nodded. At least she knew not to question him about his decisions. "If you…don't mind me asking, boss…what got you so mad after you dropped them off? Did you pick a dimension you didn't want or—"

On the _other_ hand.

Cipher turned red and glared down at Pyronica disapprovingly, cutting her off quickly. _"THAT'S MY BUSINESS AND NOT YOURS, RONNIE."_

"R-right!" Pyronica scrambled back a couple steps.

Good, she was learning her place again. Cipher went back to his obnoxious yellow and straightened his tie. " _WE JUST GOT A SLIGHT HITCH THAT'LL GET WORKED OUT OF MY PLANS BY THE TIME WE GET AROUND TO TAKING CARE OF THINGS. I JUST HAD TO CALL IN A FEW DEALS THAT NEEDED TO BE TAKEN CARE OF AND START UP A FEW MORE. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT."_

Pyronica looked a bit nervous, but then relaxed and grinned. "We're doing it the way we did it the first time?"

 _"_ _WELL, THAT METHOD WORKED QUITE WELL LAST TIME, SO WHY NOT? IT GIVES ME SOMETHING TO DO WHILE YOU BOZOS GO RUNNING AROUND MESSING UP EVERY OTHER DIMENSION WE'VE PICKED UP. FINALLY GOT DONE TRASHING THIS ONE, ANYWAY – WE NEED A NEW, PROPER HEADQUARTERS, YOU KNOW?"_

Cipher's eye turned up in a smile, but inwardly he felt he should have seen this coming. All dimensions eventually collapsed into the Nightmare Realm, and this one was pretty close to doing that.

Which was a shame, really. He liked the looks that came over Fords' faces when they realized that one of their counterparts hadn't stopped Weirdmageddon. Now he'd just have to move onto the next one – which one was it again? Oh yeah, the kid with the triangle head. Cipher was looking forward to finding a way to twist that smart little brain of his.

Not like Phineas was really able to use it to do anything beyond be a slight annoyance to his Henchmaniacs. He'd conquered that dimension and let his minions go loose on it for their party; if Phineas though that he could do something to get them to stop, that just made things more entertaining for Cipher.

Or, maybe he'd just skip over Phineas entirely and take this new dimension they were grabbing.

 _"_ _HOW'S THE CURRENT BATCH, BY THE WAY? I KNOW WE'VE GOT ONE OR TWO THAT COULD BE COMING IN IF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS DON'T MESS UP."_

"Unusually quiet." Pyronica shrugged. "And none of them look like good toys, so I'm not gonna ask about that."

 _"_ _GOOD. THEY BELONG TO OTHER CIPHERS; THEY'RE GONNA WANT THEM ONLY MARGINALLY TRAUMATIZED."_ Cipher looked slyly at Pyronica. " _DON'T WANT ME TO HAVE ALL THE FUN, RIGHT?"_

Pyronica nodded – maybe a little too quickly, but Cipher didn't particularly care. So long as she listened and didn't try to question anything he had planned, that was a good thing. He could let her occasional moments of rebellion slide – after all, watching her toy with Fordsy was a form of entertainment for him, too.

What did he care if Fordsy wiped his own mind of emotions in the process? He was just a puppet to be used in his schemes. Wiping out his emotions just made him even more quiet and pliable, but Cipher liked keeping him aware when he made Fordsy do things.

It let him and everyone else see how low Fordsy had dropped.

 _"_ _GO GET IN CONTACT WITH THOSE DARK ARMS BOZOS. I'VE GOT A FEW WORDS I'D LIKE TO SAY TO THEM."_

"What? Why them?" Pyronica scowled. "Those dark creeps aren't any fun at all!"

 _"_ _WELL, THEY'RE GOING TO PLAY A PART IN MY PLAN HERE PRETTY SOON. IT'S TIME TO CALL UP THAT FAVOR THEY OWE ME FOR PUTTING THAT BOUNTY OUT ON THE NOT-FORD. GO ON – AND MAYBE GET KRYPTOS TO HELP YOU OR SOMETHING IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE GOING ALONE."_

Cipher gave her a look that suggested he could say another word – a word that Pyronica didn't happen to like when directed at her outside of her bedroom. Twin stacks of smoke rose from her horns in response, and she turned and stomped out of the throne room muttering curses under her breath.

Some of them were directed at Cipher, but the demon didn't care. Pyronica knew not to cross him physically. Most of the Henchmaniacs knew that, actually.

And the ones who had bargained their new forms for their loyalty to him didn't question him one bit, which…while that was nice, got utterly _boring_ after a while.

Maybe he should go back on his deals for some of them and see what happens. That would make things interesting.

Below the Fearamid, the planet shook again and crumbled more into itself. The star it circled around grumbled greedily, its chaos-created mouth chomping in the direction of the remains of the planet.

Cipher reached out and flicked the sun between its nonexistent eyes. _"NONE OF THAT. YOU'LL GET YOUR SNACK WHEN I GET MY NEXT DIMENSION."_

The star grumbled, but went back to its place and continued to watch as the remains of the planets circled it.

It wouldn't be too long now – Cipher had already decided how this dimension was going to end.

The sun would eat the Earth after he'd warped to a new dimension, and then he'd sever himself from it. As soon as the chaotic power that had been sustaining this place ran out, everything would die and collapse into the Nightmare Realm.

And then he'd keep moving to the next dimension. And the next. And the next.

 **Change in POV**

"I don't like this. Ma, why'd you have to get us _up here?"_

Cassandra floated back into the hidden alcove. The black brickwork thrummed with chaotic power up here, and as much as she didn't like it, she was used to it. "Our home was gone, we didn't have all that much of a choice, Sherman."

Her still human, still alive son groaned and put his head in his hands. "Ma, we're right in the lion's den. You might as well have signed off on our deaths."

"Yer not gonna die, yer under my jurisdiction an' so long as we don't bug the big fella in yellow he won't bug us." The ghost of Cassandra Pines sat down an inch above the floor. She looked at her son, her grandson, her grandson's wife, and her great-granddaughter's pet pig in turn. "An' it doesn't look like he's focusin' on us, so we're fine."

"Ma." Alex's tone was serious. "We can't stay here forever. One of his monsters could come down this way an' find us."

"I know. But we have more time than we seem to. Doesn't exist here, remember?" Cassandra's smile went a little sly. "We're gonna be fine here."

"But what about the –" Karen lowered her voice. "What about the other people up here? The ones that all look like Uncle Ford?"

"They're not my brother," Sherman replied. "They may look like him, they may sound like him, but they're not the man who's running around who knows where looking like someone put half a Halloween costume on him."

"We still have to help them," Karen insisted. "We can help them get out of here and—"

"An' let that monster catch them again?" Cassandra shook her head. "We gotta wait fer the right moment. Cipher's plannin' on goin' inta another dimension – we would'a seen our kids by now. So when he goes, we'll rescue those boys, an' then you four are gettin' outta here."

Waddles oinked and shuffled closer to Cassandra, but the ghost held up a hand to stop him. The pig's nose went through her spectral palm before he pulled back, snuffling.

"Ma," Sherman said seriously. "We're not leavin' ya behind."

"I'm a ghost, Sherman," Cassandra replied seriously. "Do ya really think that I'm gonna be able ta do anythin' out there? I'm runnin' outta energy – I can tell. My time's almost up. An' I want ta see you safe an' away from this place, not stuck here until this dimension collapses an' you die with it."

The three still-alive members of the Pines family looked at Cassandra with expressions that suggested they didn't want to think about that.

Cassandra sighed. "Look. Whatever happens, you're going to be safe and stay safe. That monster's not payin' any attention to us, an' neither are his beasties. We'll find a way to survive, but until then, we wait an watch fer an opportunity ta get you an' those poor fellas in the cells down the way outta here. All right?"

That got some reluctant murmurs of assent.

Waddles snuffled and flopped down onto the floor.

"I know." Cassandra hovered a hand over the pig's head. "Everything'll be okay. You'll see Mabel again. I'll pass to the afterlife trying to make sure of that."

Waddles oinked.

 **Change in POV**

Ford leaned towards the cell bars, pulling at the chains keeping him in place. "He's out?"

"Well, the puppets are." The imp-like creature sitting outside of his cell blinked its five eyes – four on either side and one on its lower left cheek. It was hard to tell if this thing _had_ a gender. "Master Cipher was angry at something after they left."

"I heard. Any idea why?"

The imp shrugged. The purple, horned head tilted to one side. "Master Cipher doesn't tell us everything because he doesn't need to. Why should we?"

"...fair point," Ford muttered.

He was one of the more recent captures from his counterpart, and he was currently the only one who was still attempting to gather information.

His cellmate – more worn than he was – gave him a tired look and settled back to sleep. Something that most of Ford's counterparts were doing.

"What is there you _can_ tell me?"

"I'm loyal to Master Cipher; do you expect me to tell you anything that you're going to believe?" The imp grinned, showing a shark's mouth worth of teeth. "Master Cipher's puppets may be gone, but that doesn't mean that Master Cipher isn't. I'm just here to guard you. He won't let me eat you because _your_ Master Cipher still wants you."

Ford clenched his fists, but he didn't offer a response.

The imp didn't deserve one.

The imp threw back its head and laughed. "Oh, I look forward to seeing what your Master Cipher will do with you! As interesting as you are, you did go against your deal with him!"

Ford's expression darkened further. "Like I'm going to let myself be caught for good by him. I'll find a way to break out. You'll see."

"Ha! That's only happened once, and Master Cipher is wise to any attempts like that! But I would like to see you try!"

Oh, Ford was going to try. He'd heard of the Breakout. What was going to keep him from trying to start another one?


	17. Curious

**Chapter 17 – Curious**

After Halloween, the Guildmaster started acting…oddly, towards Sixer.

He didn't really understand it, but she started…resting a hand on an arm, or a shoulder, or on his back.

She never took it further than that, which Sixer found oddly confusing. His instincts, rooted deep in him because of everything that had happened to him, _expected_ her to go further. At least, at first. After a few days, he became used to how the Guildmaster would place a hand on his shoulder or back if they were sitting on the porch, watching the day pass by slowly.

The Guildmaster still made sure he ate and occasionally assisted her with her small orchard, as well, but more of her focus was strangely on the contact than anything else.

Things got a little more confusing one day a week or so later, when they were at the Guildmaster's orchard again. It wasn't an orchard _yet,_ but the berries they had planted in August were already beginning to sprout despite the cooling weather.

Learning to get used to seasons again was…an endeavor.

"Hey, Maria?"

"Hm?" The Guildmaster turned away from her work inspecting and fertilizing her plants. Sixer – who was near a tree at the edge of the clearing – followed her gaze and noticed the centaur-like Dipper standing at the edge of the clearing. Instead of a horse lower half, however, he had the body of a deer from the waist down.

Deerper, wasn't it? That _was_ a name that the Guildmaster had identified him as at some point.

"What is it, Deerper?" the Guildmaster asked. She set aside the container of fertilizer, drawing Deerper's wary attention away from Sixer.

Deerper fidgeted, adjusting his grip on a book in his hands. "I was wondering…how'd you get those fire powers you showed us before? When you were…" His gaze moved to Sixer as he trailed off.

When the Guildmaster was what?

"You want to know about my magic?" the Guildmaster responded. "Why do you ask?"

"W-well—" Deerper rubbed the back of his head. "Well, Dipper and I were going over our notes and…and you never really mentioned if you were born with them or anything like that. And you _did_ apparently say that you and Grunkle Sixer were turned into the same creature at some point, so…did you get them then?"

The Guildmaster blinked. "Deerper, I was expecting these questions _months_ ago, when I first demonstrated my ability when testing Sixer's. Why are you only asking them _now?"_

"…things have calmed down a little?"

Sixer tilted his head slightly. Calmed down?

The Guildmaster blinked blankly, then sighed and shook her head. "All right. I don't see anything wrong with telling you." She patted the grass next to her, and Deerper walked over and knelt next to her, legs folding underneath him.

…she was going to just tell him? No deal involved?

That didn't make any sense.

Deeper opened the book and pulled a pen out of his vest before looking at the Guildmaster expectantly.

"The funny thing is, I was born with them," the Guildmaster began. "But it isn't natural – you can blame my _dad_ for getting the whole thing started. He got himself dunked in some weird gunk completely by accident. He came out of it just fine, but when he and Mom started having kids?" She chuckled lightly. "Surprised Mom and Dad to no end when they saw me practicing in the backyard near our pool if I needed to dunk myself."

…her father?

Deerper tilted his head. "Gunk? What kind?"

The Guildmaster glanced at Sixer and frowned slightly. "…well, I don't know all the details, but I know it was stuff that wasn't in my dimension. At all. The whole traveling across dimensions thing _I_ do didn't start with me, either."

"It didn't?" Deerper's ears perked up. "You mean your mom and dad did it, too?"

Sixer's ears flicked upwards slightly as the Guildmaster nodded. Her parents had been World Jumpers before her?

That ability was hereditary, then?

The Guildmaster nodded. "Mom and Dad couldn't make portals, though. They got sucked into vortexes in TVs and things like that, according to what they told me and my siblings. They first found out about how video games and cartoons were real in the multiverse that way."

"Real? You mean – Ducktective could be a real dimension?" Deerper's eyes were wide.

"Exactly. And the place where my dad got dunked in gunk – called mako by the locals – was a part of a video game series we call _Final Fantasy._ " The Guildmaster looked over at Sixer. "Have you heard of something called that? Mako?"

She was asking him?

Sixer blinked, thrown off at the sudden question. He tilted his head slightly as he thought, then shook his head. "I have not come into contact with a substance of that designation, Guildmaster."

"I haven't run into it, either. All I know is that it's weird, it's basically pure magic and life force, and if you come into contact with it there's a higher chance that you'll die of mako poisoning than come out stronger for it. And all that happened with _Dad_ is that he came out _fine_ and ended up giving his kids magic powers." The Guildmaster shrugged. "The abilities my brothers had were diluted the further down the bloodline it went, but the effects were still there. Matthew's Aura Sense, Collin's electro-kinetics – by the time we left for Gunsmoke, their however many great-grandkids had the barest shadow of even a trace of those abilities."

Matthew…Collin…the Guildmaster's brothers? Although, from the sound of it, they were no longer physically present.

"Whoa…" Deerper's eyes were wide. "So, you guys had different abilities depending on, what, just random occurrence?"

"Probably." The Guildmaster shrugged. "I'm happy with mine, though – I don't know what would have happened if I'd ended up with hydrokinetics, like my sister, or something else entirely. My powers have served me well."

Deerper looked at the Guildmaster with a wide-eyed expression, then nodded and started writing quickly. "Th-this opens up a lot more avenues than I or the others were thinking! I-I thought you came into contact with something that set it off o-or something."

"It's all traced back to my dad," the Guildmaster replied. "The Reploid thing was _my_ doing, indirectly, but the magic was something else."

Reploid? What sort of being was that?

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go ask Grunkle Stanford if _he's_ ever heard of mako – maybe we can get our hands on some and study it!" Deerper rose to his feet. "Thanks, Maria!"

"No prob. If you ever want to hear more stories and stuff like that, make sure to ask me."

The Guildmaster waved at Deerper as he bounded out of the clearing, and went back to her plants while Sixer stared at her with a look of confusion.

The Guildmaster had just given away a piece of knowledge about herself without asking for the same thing from Deerper in return. It would make sense to exchange knowledge for knowledge, but she…didn't.

Why?

Sixer moved away from the tree, tails shaking themselves out slightly as he stepped towards the Guildmaster. The crunch of the grass under his boots caused her to look up, then raise an eyebrow.

She was…curious? Was that the right word?

"Guildmaster?" Sixer stopped at the edge of the row of plants the Guildmaster was working through. "Why are you…doing all this?"

"What do you mean?" The Guildmaster turned and looked up at him, remaining on her knees.

That was an image that made Sixer a little uncomfortable – she should be above him, not the other way around.

"Why are you giving away information and taking nothing in exchange?"

"Because I feel like it. And Deerper is curious; I'm not going to keep him from learning. As for asking for something in exchange…well, I already know a lot about his family because of how information gets across dimensions. If there's something I don't know about, I can go learn about it myself."

Sixer blinked. "You…give information freely when asked." It didn't feel like it should make any sense.

The Guildmaster shrugged. "I don't see why I shouldn't. I don't work on a system where I need knowledge for knowledge, or something for something else. As interesting as it would be, I don't _need_ to have an exchange like that. It's not in my nature."

Sixer stared. She…what? But it didn't work that way – it couldn't.

The Guildmaster frowned. "Is that…what Cipher did?"

Sixer nodded. "Every exchange of knowledge was a deal to him, Guildmaster."

"Every conversation?"

Sixer nodded.

"Then that just means he focused on the binding contract of a deal; I don't _make_ deals. Sixer, I already told you – I'm not Cipher, I'm not going to treat you like Cipher did, and I'm not going to _act_ like Cipher in any way. Deals that are bound in handshakes and fire are not things that I do. I'm not a demon, I'm a human in a mechanical body that looks like a human's."

…when did that happen?

Sixer blinked. The Guildmaster's words didn't…quite make any sense to him, but…

"So…you don't require anything in return for…for the physical contact?"

" _What?_ No! No, I'm not looking for anything in return from that! I'm doing that because it appears to me that you _need_ the contact, Sixer. I'm not asking for anything in return from you – I'm doing this because I feel like it. Because I want to."

The Guildmaster rose to her feet, then walked over to Sixer and stopped in front of him. She was looking at him with that expression he had yet to learn how to identify.

Something squeezed his heart, and he took a slight step back. It didn't feel right that she was so close.

"Sixer. I'm _not_ like anyone back in the Fearamid. I should hope that you know this by now."

Sixer blinked at the Guildmaster's words, then nodded a little. Yes, he knew that.

"So what I do does not mean that I am going to ask for what _they_ would ask in return. What I want, right now, is to make sure that you feel _safe_ here. And if that means offering you occasional touches that are _meant_ to be reassuring, then that is what I am going to do."

The Guildmaster reached up and rested a hand on the edge of Sixer's shoulder. "I know it feels strange now, but I have a reason for doing this. I do. You're safe in this dimension, while it stands now, and Cipher's not going to get his hands on you again while I stand here between you and him. You don't _have_ to keep your walls up anymore."

…keep his walls up?

At the back of his mind, Sixer's felt cracks start to chip into a barrier that he'd built up over the course of four hundred years. His face shifted – he felt it go into an expression that he wasn't used to – and he quickly sealed the cracks up and regained his emotionless visage.

Except it felt harder to hold onto it for some reason.

The Guildmaster kept her gaze on Sixer for a moment, then sighed and dropped her hand from his shoulder. "Come on; I need some help finishing fertilizing the plants. I shouldn't take us too long, since I've already done half."

Sixer blinked, then nodded slowly and moved to assist.

But still, the cracks in his mental wall remained.

 **Time Break**

Similar events happened over the next few days – the Guildmaster continued resting a hand on his shoulders or arms or back, and the cracks continued to make themselves more pronounced at the back of Sixer's mind.

The issue was that Sixer didn't know _why_ the cracks were forming.

He shouldn't be feelings things. Not feeling things just made everything easier for the Guildmaster to get him to do things. So he _wasn't_ going to feel things.

"Hello, Maria! Sixer!"

Sixer was pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of a familiar voice – Fiddleford.

"Hi!" The Guildmaster waved at the old man as he approached, a tool box in one hand. Sixer looked over as well. "What brings you out here, Fidds?"

"Stanferd wanted me ta look over some parts an' figure out if there was anything we could use for defense!" Fiddleford replied. He frowned. "Say, ya mind if I have a look at yer systems before the weather gets too cold?" He walked over to the porch the two were sitting on.

Systems?

"Hm?" The Guildmaster blinked. "Oh, yeah, sure – it is starting to get to be around that time of year, isn't it? Do you want to do it now or…?"

"Yer okay with openin' up in the middle of the woods?" Fiddleford raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't exactly sound safe fer yer inner workin' parts."

"I've had repairs and check-ups done in worse places, believe me." The Guildmaster held her left arm towards Fiddleford. "Well, better get this started, right? Or do you want to do this inside? Because sometimes it could get messy and I don't think that Alex wants to come home to find old oil or something all over his nice floor."

"Fair point, fair point." Fiddleford put the tool kit on the porch and opened it up. "Now, the instructions said somethin' about ya bein' able ta switch ta—"

The Guildmaster breathed in, then exhaled as her clothes flickered and changed in front of Sixer's eyes. Suddenly, she was sitting on the creaking porch in armor that covered her from the neck down – a gray jumpsuit, fitted with orange plates of armor over her shoulders, forearms, and back, and red plate covering her chest and feet in large boots that went up to her knees. White gloves covered her hands, and gold rings encircled her elbows, wrists, and knees.

Sixer's eyes widened. Was this what she had meant before when she had told Deerper she was a Reploid?

"Whoa!" The Guildmaster laughed as she suddenly dropped an inch as the wood groaned underneath her. "Almost forgot about the weight conversion there."

"Ya mean, ya make yerself lighter when yer not lookin' like that?" Fiddleford opened up the toolbox and motioned for the Guildmaster to hold her left arm a little closer to him.

"Have to be more human in almost every way – and that includes keeping me from weighing more than I'm supposed to." The Guildmaster shrugged as Fiddleford fiddled with the armor on her forearm. He found a panel after a little poking and popped it open, revealing circuitry and wiring inside, among other things. "Weighing more than a human normally does, I mean."

"Metal weighs far more than flesh and bone!" Fiddleford confirmed. "I'd like ta study that weight displacement system later, if yer willin.' It might help me with some of my inventions!"

Sixer's ears flicked.

"I don't see why I can't work with you on that later," the Guildmaster replied. She turned her arm slightly while Fiddleford looked at the inner mechanisms. Sixer saw the inner workings move in response to Maria's shifting of her wrist, watching metal parts turn and shift.

He hadn't seen _anything_ like this before.

And then he noticed that the Guildmaster and Fiddleford were both looking at him, and he quickly pulled back, attempting to reign his curiosity in.

"It's okay, Sixer."

Sixer blinked at the Guildmaster. What?

"I wouldn't be doing this out in the open if I didn't want people seeing what I look like under my armor. I trust the people here. If you want to have a look, I won't hold it against you."

Sixer stared, eyes wide. "You…won't?"

"No. There's nothing wrong with being curious, Sixer. It's all right."

She was allowing him to be curious?

More cracks settled into his mental wall.

Fiddleford closed the panel on the Guildmaster's left arm and motioned for her to hold out her right. Sixer moved away from her right side so that Fiddleford could get close to her arm. At the same time, he was close enough to still see what was happening.

Fiddleford popped the panel open and looked inside. Sixer's ears rose as he looked at the contents of the Guildmaster's arm.

It was… _fascinating._ Both the fact that the Guildmaster had intricate moving parts like this and that she had moving mechanical pieces at all.

He wasn't entirely certain what to make of it.

"Doesn't look like anythin's had any trouble with the weather here yet. That's good." Fiddleford nodded. "Specially considerin' that ya came from a desert planet, accordin' to that info ya gave me."

"I've been to a lot of different climates across dimensions; it'd be weird if I didn't have a way of controlling my internal climate," the Guildmaster replied. "It helps that I know how to manipulate how warm I am overall in response to that."

"Part a' yer magic thing, right? Any chance you could teach the rest a' us how ta do somethin' like that?"

Fiddleford's question made the Guildmaster laugh, then shake her head. "Magic is tricky business. You might not be able to use fire magic specifically."

"Guildmaster, didn't you say that yours was inherited?" Sixer asked.

"In my case, yes. But that was because my parents were from a dimension that isn't supposed to have it and this dimension has magic all over the place, so Fiddleford _could_ learn how to use a spell or two to help him with his inventions. It's just a matter of finding an elemental ability that he's most in-sync with." The Guildmaster frowned. "And that might…take a while."

"Well, it's somethin' we could look into!" Fiddleford closed the panel on the Guildmaster's arm and grabbed her right leg, looking over the armor the covered her calf and foot like a large boot. "Now, lessee…."

"There used to be jets down there," the Guildmaster commented as the panel popped open. "Joshua pulled them out, though – I've got a hoverboard, so I don't really need anything like that."

Now her _feet?_ Just how much of the Guildmaster was the mechanical?

"Can I have a look at that later?"

"I don't see why not."

Sixer shifted slightly, frowning. "Guildmaster…"

The Guildmaster looked at Sixer and tilted her head slightly. "What is it?"

"…how much of you isn't…human, anymore?"

The Guildmaster blinked at that, looking surprised.

Sixer got the feeling that he might have overstepped his bounds. "Should I not have asked?"

"No, no, it's – it's just I haven't really been asked that in a while. Heh." The Guildmaster gave a small smile. "I got in an accident, right near the beginning of my travels across my dimensions. Some evil mastermind with robots was planning on taking over the world, and I portaled in to help his rival and former partner stop him. Unfortunately, I got caught in the crossfire a bit. So Dr. Light did what he could in order to make sure I'd actually live and – well, the result was a lot less human than you're probably thinking."

The Guildmaster rapped a white-gloved hand against her armored chest, bringing back the sound of metal on metal. "The only part of me that's still human is my soul, nestled in my power core. Everything else is metal and fuel and whatever else an android needs in order to function." She looked nostalgic, but there was a sadness in her eyes as well. "It…took a while to get used to, considering that I'm not human anymore and sometimes my voice sounds like it's spitting static, but…it's a change I've made my own."

Sixer stared. That was…wow.

He thought back to what the Dark Arms had said, when Cipher had made a deal with them. They had called her a project.

Now he could see a little better why, on top of her status as a "World Jumper."

Sixer saw Fiddleford's eyes go wide.

"Yer tellin' me someone figured it out?" Fiddleford asked. "How ta – ta put a human in a mechanical form?"

The Guildmaster nodded. "I don't think he'd be able to do it again, though. There's…a lot of factors that went into what happened with me. Most notably being what my soul is sitting _in._ The crystal that is my core is a special kind found in a version of Atlantis. It basically acts like a battery, elongating people's lives while at the same time feeding off the positive energies that people can feel. Positive emotions, that kind of thing. I've also got the option for solar power and just regular food, so I can run pretty well for a while."

The Guildmaster looked at Sixer as she finished speaking, and it took him a moment to quickly reign in his expression. But the curiosity and…and feeling of wanting to know _more_ was still there, under the surface.

And it was _so hard_ to hold it back.

"And your abilities carried over," Sixer said.

"They're attached to my soul is my best guess." The Guildmaster shrugged. "I guess they just…were able to manifest because of the mako soak my dad took. I'm not really in a position to experiment in order to find out." She paused. "Probably would be a good idea _not_ to, really. I'd rather not find out what it is that caused the change if it's going to change anyone who gets involved and they do't want to be."

"Very wise of you." Fiddleford nodded and closed his toolbox. "Whelp! I think that just about does it fer the check-up I needed ta run! I'll be by when the temperature drops ta see if ya need any oil or anythin' like that." He picked up his toolbox and gave them a wave before he set off.

The Guildmaster and Sixer watched him go, then the Guildmaster turned to look at Sixer. She looked over his expression, frowning slightly. He wasn't sure what that meant.

"It's okay to be curious," the Guildmaster said. "It's okay to ask questions. I've honestly been expecting it from you. And I'm willing to answer any questions you have."

Sixer blinked. She was…okay with him being curious.

He felt something shift at the back of his mind, but it wasn't a big enough shift to be something he needed to think about.


	18. The Dam Breaks

**Chapter 18 – The Dam Breaks**

Getting used to curiosity again was…an experience. One that Sixer wasn't sure _how_ to get used to.

He was used to holding things like this back, not letting them come forward. And it showed depending on his actions – occasional questions did force themselves to be said, but Sixer tended to hold any questions he had until he either felt they were too stupid to ask or the question was something that he felt needed to be answered.

It…seemed to frustrate the Guildmaster somehow, but Sixer didn't know why or what else he needed to do for her sake.

His curiosity drove him to start thinking about it as he sat out on the porch while the Guildmaster paced inside Stanford's Shack, speaking with Vash and Knives on a matter that he didn't need to listen in on.

The Guildmaster hadn't done anything to him that would hinder him in any form. Odd, considering what Cipher had done, but understandable, as the Guildmaster was not a healer and could not undo reality in a similar manner to Cipher.

The Guildmaster also told him that it was okay to be curious and that Gravity Falls was…safe.

His eyes watered a little at the thought of the word, and he quietly shook his head and pushed down the…whatever it was that was making his eyes do that. He didn't need to have his vision momentarily made blurry by a sudden excess of water. It would be most unwise if he lost his vision and something happened in which he would require being able to see.

But what was causing his eyes to do so in the first place? As far as Sixer was aware, his body should not be reacting to the environment in the form of a defensive mechanism, as he was not allergic to any of the fauna in the local area. At least, he doubted he was.

The sound of something large and on wheels came from the driveway at the edge of the clearing. Sixer's ears flicked and he turned towards the source of the sound.

At the same moment, Wendy entered the clearing on her bicycle, appearing startled. "We got company! And it's the government kind!" She zipped around to the Mystery Shack half of Stanford's home, disappearing from sight.

Her call got others out of the Shacks. Mizar stood on the porch of her home, a hulking beast of a demon peering out from the propped-open doorway. Sixer was only able to identify him as a Stanley – or "Andrew," as Mizar had called him – because of the fez that rested on the being's head. Stan and Ford, Sphinx and Gargrunkle, and Stanford and Stanley all stepped out into the open.

Crescent pushed his way through the door and frowned at the black SUV that stopped in the middle of the clearing. "The hell are they doing here…?"

Sixer looked at his brother, ear flicking as the vehicle's doors opened, and two figures stepped out in suits – two men, one with dark hair, the other with blond.

Crescent noticed his brother's stare and snorted. "It's those two agents from way back when, remember? They've been here before an' caused trouble."

Sixer glanced at the two agents. There was something familiar about them, but he wasn't sure what.

The Guildmaster would probably know how to handle the situation.

Sixer rose to his feet and walked through the open doorway as one of the agents started speaking.

"Which one of you knows about a sudden flux of energy—"

Sixer stopped in the doorway that led to the living room.

"—that's an absolutely stupid idea," the Guildmaster was saying. "So what do I do to—"

Sixer knocked against the doorway's frame, cutting the Guildmaster off and getting her attention. She – as well as Vash and Knives – looked at him, attention momentarily diverted.

The Guildmaster frowned. "What's up, Sixer?"

"We have…visitors," Sixer replied carefully. "Crescent said they are two government agents who have been here before."

The Guildmaster's eyes widened sharply. "Trigger and Powers. Holy _scrap_ I didn't think they'd be coming back at all!" She quickly moved past Sixer and out the door. Sixer followed after her, giving her some distance by remaining standing in the doorway.

"Any idea what they're here for?" the Guildmaster asked.

"They picked up the rift that dropped _them_ back in August," Stanley grunted. "Least, that's what Trigger's said."

"Surprised it took them _this_ long," Crescent added. "If they were on top of their game we'd have been neck deep in five minutes."

"Well, failing at what they did here last time probably meant that it took them longer in order to get here." The Guildmaster looked at the two men in the clearing. It appeared they were becoming impatient, but also appeared confused. "Well, at least their confusion confirms they haven't heard of or turn into anything like what's going on here yet."

"That may be, but their reason for being here is worrysome," Stanford replied.

"We gotta draw them off," Stanley muttered.

"I can make a mean Trigger copy," Crescent spoke up. "Ya want me ta split them up?"

Stanford held up a hand before Stanley could respond. "That might not be for the best. We just need to convince them that what they're looking for either isn't in the area or isn't the danger they think it is." With that, he stepped off the porch and walked towards them.

The Guildmaster followed after him, not looking back at Sixer. He took that to mean he was supposed to remain on the porch.

"Greetings," Stanford said as they approached. His voice carried across the clearing. "I am Dr. Stanford Pines." He held out a hand to shake.

"I'm Maria," the Guildmaster added, holding out her own hand.

Neither one of the agents accepted the offer to shake hands, which caused the Guildmaster to put her hands on her hips in a huff while Stanford put his behind his back.

"Just the man we were looking for," Powers said. "You do your research out in these woods, correct?"

"Correct. This anomaly you speak of – you said that you had seen it back in August?" Stanford asked calmly.

"We saw proof of it," Trigger butted in. "It matched something that came onto our sensors over—"

"That's top secret information," Powers said, cutting Trigger off. "But yes, we have seen something similar to this before, and we think that there is a chance someone is constructing a powerful weapon in your area. Somewhere out in these very woods, in fact."

The Guildmaster snorted loudly.

Stanford glanced at the Guildmaster before returning his gaze to the agents. "There are a large number of anomalies that take place out in the woods, but the worst thing that I've seen out here are wild animals and cults, but those groups aren't an issue currently. It's likely that your machines interpreted something that occurs here naturally as something that could be a danger."

The Guildmaster nodded in agreement. "Yeah; Gravity Falls is pretty quiet all around, except for Fiddleford McGucket's work. Maybe you picked up something of his?"

The agents looked at each other.

Sixer blinked. Was the Guildmaster… _lying?_ To keep the situation from being discovered?

To keep _them_ from being discovered?

"Although, I _doubt_ that my colleague is any danger," Stanford added. "He is a scientist, and he experiments, just as I do. I'm sure that if it's anything that alerted your sensors, it's something that will come to be a benefit and not a hindrance. He does sell his patents to the US Government exclusively, you know."

"We are aware," Powers replied flatly. "We have already spoken with him, and he denies putting together something that mimics that sort of power."

"Well, then it has to be a naturally occurring phenomenon that's somewhere out in the woods!" The Guildmaster motioned to the trees around them.

"Exactly." Stanford nodded. "And considering the sorts of creatures that live out in these woods, I would not be surprised if that is in fact the case."

"You'd better hope you're not lying," Trigger said, pointing at the two of them with a grim expression.

"Any opinions on what could have caused the energy fluctuations?" Powers asked. He glanced over at Gargrunkle and Sphinx, sitting on their porch and frowning at the two agents disapprovingly. "Those two monsters, for example?"

"No, it wasn't caused by them," Stanford replied in a deadpan.

"Perhaps we should—"

"No."

Powers looked at the Guildmaster as he started to pull handcuffs out of somewhere in his suitcoat. "Excuse me?"

Sixer's ears perked.

"You heard me." The Guildmaster folded her arms across her chest. "The people in this clearing are family. You make off with those two and you're going to have a lot more trouble than whatever you think caused that thing you came out here to find."

The agents exchanged looks again.

Sixer's expression shifted.

 _Family._ Was she including him in that?

A part of him doubted it, but at the same time…something nagged at the back of his mind, quiet but insistent.

His eyes felt…strangely wet. He wiped the excess away on a sweater sleeve, and frowned down at the water that was seeping into the wool.

Crescent turned and looked at him, then did a double-take and nudged Stanley, turning his attention away from what was going on in the clearing as the two agents turned and drove away.

"What is it?"

Sixer looked up at the Guildmaster's question and saw her and Stanford looking at him.

"It's nothing, Guildmaster," Sixer said quickly.

"That wasn't nothing," Crescent replied with a shake of his head.

"What do you mean?" The Guildmaster looked over at him, frowning.

"He reacted ta somethin' – likely somethin' you said, but I'm not sure what." Crescent looked at Sixer with a grim expression. "I wasn't expectin' that."

"Expecting what?" The Guildmaster returned her gaze to Sixer. "Sixer?"

She wasn't angry. That frown…that frown he'd seen on her face, directed towards him so many times and hadn't been able to identify –

Something slipped through the cracks in his mental walls.

 _Concern._

Sixer's vision started blurring a little again. "I – I-I have it under control, Guildmaster."

The Guildmaster looked at him for a moment longer, then stepped forward and grabbed his hand. "Come on."

The Guildmaster tugged him off the porch and started to head for the woods. Sixer didn't fight, instead focusing on pushing back whatever it was that was trying to push past the barrier at the back of his mind.

"Nobody follow after us! At least don't get too close if you do!" the Guildmaster added.

Mizar stepped off the porch of her home. "Maria—"

"This isn't something that can happen out here like this. I know what I'm doing; _trust me."_

It wasn't directed at Sixer, and Mizar blinked in surprise as they moved past her and into the trees.

The Guildmaster didn't speak as she led Sixer into the woods. He took this to his advantage and started mentally fortifying the wall at the back of his mind, holding back the things that he didn't need if he was going to be able to work for the Guildmaster in an efficient manner.

He'd managed to push everything back behind the barrier by the time they'd stopped in the middle of an open clearing. The forest was quiet.

The Guildmaster let go of Sixer's hand and turned to look at him, frowning. "Sixer, why do you think it's a good idea to keep your emotions under wraps?"

Sixer blinked at the question. At the back of his mind, something pushed against the barrier. He took a moment to push back. "…because they hinder me, Guildmaster. They can hinder—"

"I don't care if they hinder _anything,_ Sixer."

Sixer blinked. What?

"I…I don't understand."

"Sixer." The Guildmaster sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I _don't_ want to _use_ you. I want to _help_ you. You're _not_ someone I see as less than me. You _never_ were."

The barrier at the back of his mind was pressed against again.

"You're _safe_ here. You're not going to be ordered to do something you're not going to like or _ever_ disliked. _I don't intend to use you."_

…that didn't make any sense. None of what she was saying made sense.

…or did it?

The Guildmaster sighed irritably and walked forward and put her hands on his shoulders. "Sixer. What makes you think that I'd _prefer_ to have your emotions held back?" She looked at him with a furrowed brow.

"Emotions can hinder any commands you might give me," Sixer replied honestly.

"And what gave you _that_ idea?"

Sixer blinked. What had? "Cipher made it clear that we were only there to serve—"

 _"_ _I'm not Cipher."_ The Guildmaster became exasperated. "I'm not going to make you do the things that he did, and I'm not going to make you do anything that goes against anything you might not like." She shook her head. "Sixer, you're _safe_ here. It's okay to let your emotions out again; I'm not going to do anything to you just because you have emotions or don't, but…I don't know if you're gonna be able to get completely better without them."

The Guildmaster dropped her hands from his shoulders and pulled back. Sixer stared at her, not sure where she was going.

The force at the back of his mind pushed again.

Safe here? Was he?

"I will _never_ use you."

Sixer's focus returned to the Guildmaster. Her eyes were…she was…

"You're my equal, not something less."

The Guildmaster's voice was trembling.

 _Equal._

She'd called him that before, hadn't she? But she'd…

She'd never been _crying_ while doing so before.

Cipher had never cried. It hadn't been in his nature to. There was only amusement, boredom, and anger from what Sixer had witnessed.

But the Guildmaster….

The barrier that Sixer had kept solidly in place for so long – the one thing that had held back that which he'd thought burdensome – started cracking again.

Another term joined _concern,_ bringing something back.

 _Care._

…was that what the Guildmaster was doing?

Sixer felt his eyes start to gather wetness – no, _tears_ – and he stumbled back from the Guildmaster as concern took over her face completely. He shook his head, trying to pull the tears back, trying to keep everything in himself.

She could do as she liked – the Guildmaster wasn't bound down to anyone, he had to—

The Guildmaster marched forward and grabbed Sixer's shoulders again.

"Sixer, _it's okay._ It's okay to cry."

The Guildmaster's tears left her eyes, tracking down her cheeks.

And the wall at the back of Sixer's mind let out a resounding _crack_ as it was broken.

Sixer sucked in a shaky breath as he suddenly lost strength in his legs; he collapsed to his knees, the Guildmaster following suit.

His hands were trembling, but Sixer wasn't really feeling them.

He was feeling the wave of – of _something_ coming for him, formed from that which he'd kept bottled up for so long.

The Guildmaster released a pulse of warmth from her hands into Sixer's shoulders.

And he felt _everything._

A loud wail ripped from Sixer's throat as he dropped his head into his hands, shoulders shaking from the force of his tears as guilt and sorrow hit him in tandem.

 _All those worlds…my own…lost to him…_

Every single dimension crossed through his mind – every face that had ultimately taken deals with Cipher, those who fought against him and his tyranny.

 _His counterparts,_ trapped by their own Ciphers. Because of _him._ Because he hadn't been able to _stop._

 _I'm sorry._ _ **I'm sorry.**_

And then the relief – he truly was out of Cipher's reach. Someone _had_ rescued him from his control.

He laughed, but it was bitter, and he fell back to tears when he remembered what his family had gone through, the pain they had suffered from.

The pain everyone _still_ suffered from.

And then it went to anger.

Cipher. _He_ had done this to them, forced Sixer and his family to live lives of _parasites,_ living off the willpower of others.

The air around them grew warmer as fire started to appear at the edge of Sixer's vision, but he didn't pay any attention to that. The emotions had caught him in a bottomless vortex, buffeting him on all sides and leaving him feeling helpless and adrift. Anger one moment, sorrow the next, happiness, guilt - everything was combined together at once, leaving him unable to tell what he _should_ be feeling right at that moment.

He needed an anchor.

Sixer lunged forward and buried his face in Maria's shoulder. He clawed for a proper hold while she wrapped her arms around him in response. The movement was familiar – he'd seen others doing it, but…he couldn't remember what it was _called._

Eventually, slowly, the seemingly endless storm subsided, leaving Sixer quietly weeping as he held onto Maria, still trembling from the mental force he had been hit with. He felt _so tired._ Feeling everything as he had, he didn't feel like there was any strength left in him.

"Everything's – everything's gonna be okay," Maria murmured, voice shaking. She was crying too, still. "It's…it's gonna be a while, but…but things are gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay."

Sixer sniffled, not feeling enough strength to do much more.

And then the cool air around them became warm, and welcoming.

Sixer's trembling stilled. His hands dropped from where they had been holding onto Maria's shoulders, looped under her arms.

With a final sigh, he succumbed to the darkness of exhausted unconsciousness.


	19. Spiritual Allies

**Maria's gonna pull a _slight_ Dues Ex Machina in this chapter, but she doesn't get to solve everything. She has allies, and she makes use of them. Simple as that.**

 **Chapter 19 – Spiritual Allies**

When Sixer woke up, he found himself lying in bed, back in the guest room that had quickly turned into his family's room.

He blinked, staring at the wooden wall next to his bed. Where had he been before….? The last thing he remembered felt like a dream, indistinct and hazy.

The woods? Something about fire…

But there was a sting to that memory, too.

Sixer blinked the tears away quickly and sat up in bed, rubbing the wetness from his eyes. A part of him was confused as to why he was crying in the first place – wasn't he keeping himself from feeling anything?

 _"It's okay to cry,"_ the Guildmaster's voice murmured at the back of his mind.

He took in a shaky breath in response to the memory, but let the tears fall freely, covering his eyes with one hand as he sat on the bed.

It wasn't a dream, then.

He'd let go. Of everything.

 _And it still hurt._

"Sixer?"

Sixer looked up at the voice, blinking rapidly to drive the tears away when he caught sight of the Guildmaster standing in the doorway.

"Hey. You feeling okay?" The Guildmaster came over and sat down on the bed next to him, putting a hand on his back.

He felt a pulse of warmth from the contact – the Guildmaster's power at work. Sixer sighed and covered his eyes with one hand again, as he leaned into the touch slightly. "I-I don't know. I had control over this before…"

Kindness. That's what this was. The Guildmaster was acting on her _kindness._ Another word that he could remember, now that his emotions had returned.

"That wasn't exactly…healthy," the Guildmaster said carefully. "I've done it myself, so I know, but I didn't hold it back for as long. Nor did I hold back…everything. I just…you can't keep everything buried like that; at some point it's going to come out into the open whether you want it to or not. And with us, well – fire is tied to emotions. I didn't think it would be a good idea for you to be in the same clearing as the Mystery Shacks when…yeah."

Those words caused Sixer's mental gears to turn. Fire was tied to an emotional state.

That explained why the fire had entered the corners of his vision the day before – his powers had been responding to him.

"…oh," he said quietly. He paused, then continued, "I…hadn't considered the two were connected." He dropped his hand from his face and sighed, closing his eyes. "I feel like a fool."

The Guildmaster released another pulse of warmth. "Sixer, when you did it, did you know everything about your abilities?"

Sixer blinked at the question. Had he?

"…no. I didn't. I had to be told I was capable of transforming afterwards."

"Transforming?" The Guildmaster sounded surprised. Then she shook her head. "Wait, wait – no, I can follow that later. Sixer, there are a lot of things that you didn't know about your abilities because you didn't have a chance to experiment on your own like I did. Or get a teacher, even." That caused her to pause. "In fact, if you're feeling more up to it later, I'd be willing to show you a few things that I've picked up."

Sixer's ears flicked up and swiveled in the Guildmaster's direction, and he looked over at her with surprise. "You…you would?"

The floor creaked, and Sixer saw Crescent step out of the room in his peripheral vision.

"Well, yeah." The Guildmaster blinked, then smiled.

Smiled _kindly._ He could actually put a word to the expression now.

"I had help learning how to control my abilities," the Guildmaster continued. "I'd have no problem in teaching you when you're up to it."

"…Thank you…"

The Guildmaster rubbed a quick circle into his back, then pulled away. "There's a full breakfast waiting downstairs. French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon – it looks like Alex went all-out this morning. Would you rather one of us bring some up here or—"

"I-I'll be okay having it downstairs," Sixer replied quickly.

The Guildmaster's brow furrowed. "Are you sure?"

Sixer nodded, quickly drying his eyes. "Yes. I-I'll be fine."

The Guildmaster hesitated, then nodded a little. "Okay." She got off the bed, then moved to the door and waited there for Sixer to follow, which he did. His head was bowed slightly, but he did meet her eyes as he moved past her.

She was looking at him with that concerned expression again.

Sixer hadn't been sure what to make of it before, but…he was a little more certain of what it meant now.

She was worried about him. She wanted to help.

But how could the Guildmaster help someone who was hurt and broken as he was?

Sixer's stomach growled, and he decided to put away those thoughts for now and focus instead on the thought of food. He could smell everything in the kitchen from the second floor, and it smelled…a little more tempting, then it did yesterday?

He wasn't sure what that meant.

Pine, Star, Tyrone, and Maple were in the kitchen with Alex when Sixer arrived. Stan was standing at the stove, his visible eye focused on flipping pancakes while Ford watched with curious eyes, while the others were standing or sitting, eating breakfast.

Crescent was there, too, sitting at the table and chewing on a mouthful of bacon. He looked over as Sixer walked into the kitchen, the Guildmaster right behind him.

Crescent swallowed as Sixer sat down and started pulling things onto an empty plate. "How ya feelin'?"

The question got Stan's attention for a second, but he looked back at the stove when he nearly missed catching a pancake.

Sixer considered the question, hesitating as one hand hovered over the French toast. "I'm…I'm not sure." He grabbed a slice and pulled it onto his plate.

The Guildmaster grabbed an empty plate for herself and started grabbing things, stacking eggs and bacon between two slices of French toast. She looked between them with a curious expression, but said nothing.

Crescent raised an eyebrow as Tyrone looked over. Ford glanced over as well, looking cautious.

Sixer rubbed his thumb along his index finger, looking away from his brother. "I…I have some things to think about."

Crescent grunted. He grabbed another piece of bacon and started chewing as the Guildmaster lifted up the sandwich-looking thing she'd made from her breakfast and took a large bite.

Sixer sighed, closed his eyes for a moment. He could feel them watering again but he didn't _need_ to be crying right now. He opened his eyes again and started eating.

He didn't even notice Crescent come around and wrap his arms around him until Crescent had already done so.

"About time you let things out, nerd," Crescent muttered.

Sixer buried his face in his brother's chest in response. His shoulders started shaking instantly as the tears ran freely again, in time with quiet sobs.

He heard the voices of the others in the room as the emotions pulled him along.

"Is he okay?" Maple asked.

"I think that he's getting used to having emotions again," the Guildmaster replied. "Going without them for that long…either they're a _lot_ stronger than he's used to, or he's still trying to figure out how to respond to situations. We just have to give him time and shoulders to lean on when he needs them."

Sixer didn't like the idea of being a burden to them, but he knew the Guildmaster was right. He couldn't stop the emotions roiling just below the surface. He'd used her as an anchor before…it would make sense that he would use others as anchors as a result.

It took a few minutes for Sixer's tears to finally stop coming; he sniffled and pulled away slightly from his brother.

"Better?" Crescent asked, still not letting him go.

Sixer sniffled again. "Uh-huh."

"All-righty." Crescent squeezed Sixer a little – gently, not bone-crushing – then pulled away slowly, giving Sixer time to adjust to not leaning against his brother.

Sixer wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his sweater, then took in a breath to compose himself. His emotions were swirling within, so close he could dive into himself and become lost in that whirlpool.

It was too strong to hide it behind a mental barrier now. He doubted that he would ever do such a thing again.

Maple pushed a glass of orange juice in his direction. "Here. You're gonna need to rehydrate."

Sixer nodded slightly in thanks, then downed the glass. After all the screaming he'd done the day before, it stung a little going down.

Crescent ruffled Sixer's hair between his ears. "If ya ever need ta talk, we're around, ya know?"

"Nnh." Sixer nodded a little. His ears drooped a bit as Crescent went back to sit in his spot at the table; something about the contact…it had felt nice.

He wasn't sure _why_ it had.

He saw the Guildmaster looking over at him with that concerned expression again. He looked at her with a curious look, but she quickly averted her gaze.

He blinked, but decided against asking what it was that was bothering her. It didn't seem that she wanted to speak about what was on her mind.

Breakfast went quietly after that, with Sixer finishing his meal with slow care. The eggs and bacon _did_ taste better than they had yesterday. He wasn't sure why.

Maybe his emotions…?

It was possible.

He hadn't considered how much they affected, if that was the case. There was a lot he didn't understand about the soul and what it did.

"I think I might be able to do something that'll make this a little bit easier."

Sixer looked up as Maria rose from her seat. There was a thoughtful – but annoyed – look on her face.

"What do you mean?" Crescent frowned at her while Star and Pine exchanged looks.

"I know some creatures that represent the different parts of souls."

Sixer's eyes widened. "H-how?"

Maria reached into her jacket and pulled out a small, rectangular device that looked like it had a small touch screen with a red and white sphere covering the bottom half of the device.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Stan looked at the Guildmaster with an incredulous expression. "There're Pokémon things that do that too?"

"Pokémon?" Tyrone repeated. "Are those anything like…like Monstermons?"

"Something like that." The Guildmaster flicked her wrist, causing the screen to double in length. "You remember Cress and Dusk, right?"

"Who?" Crescent frowned.

"A Cresselia and a Darkrai. They're basically demigods of dreams and nightmares, respectively. Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie – or Jewels, Lien, and Merlin, as I know them – are also demigods. They're literal embodiments of three things that make up souls. I'm surprised I didn't think of this sooner, honestly – they might be able to help with the whole willpower problem, _on top of_ helping Sixer's emotions settle."

Sixer stared. Physical _embodiments_ of – of the parts of the _soul_.

And one of them represented _willpower_.

His ears rose as his tails started twitching at their tips. Something about them sounded familiar – strangely so.

"A-are they a part of your guild?" Sixer asked.

The Guildmaster nodded. "They were the guardians for the Time Gears, too. They joined after time went back to normal, and they played a pretty big role in something else later. So do you guys think I should bring them in on this?"

Crescent slammed his hands on the table. "Why didn't you think of them back in August?!"

"Kinda distracted by the fact that I was in a new situation that I needed to work the initial kinks out of," Maria replied. "So do I bring them in now or do we wait for Stanley, Mizar, and Sphinx to get over here before I freak them out over little pixie-sized creatures that know something about soul manipulation?"

"Know something about what?" Sphinx stepped into the room, followed by Mizar and Stanley.

"These three creatures Maria knows about." Stan nodded to the Guildmaster. "Embodiments of the soul or somethin'."

"What?" Mizar's eyes widened.

"Pokémon yes, demigods technically, embodiments of knowledge, emotion, and willpower, definitely," the Guildmaster replied. "I can summon them here, if you think it's—"

"Heck yes, let's do this," Stanley replied. "If we can figure out what's goin' on an' how ta fix it _now,_ then we should do it."

"All right then." The Guildmaster looked down at the device in her hands and pushed down on a button on the bottom. "Merlin, Lien, Jewels – I've got a bit of a soul problem over here and I'd really appreciate if you could get here as soon as—"

Maria was cut off with three bright flashes that went off above their heads – one a soft pink, one a soft yellow, and one a sky blue color.

Alex yelped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the creatures. Star and Maple gasped at once, and the others went wide-eyed.

Sixer's eyes went wide as he looked up at the three small creatures that materialized. He'd only _heard_ of these creatures – he'd never thought that he'd be able to see them for himself, much less in person like this.

The creatures were pixie-like in size and appearance: mostly white bodies except for the red gems set into their twin tails and on their foreheads, and the colors of their heads. One had what looked like a yellow helmet, eyes shut, one had two pink pigtail-looking things on either side of its head, and the third had a blue, diamond-like appearance to its head.

"Whoa…." Tyrone sounded near-speechless.

Sixer swallowed. The fact that the Guildmaster was able to summon the three creatures that represented the parts of a soul…it spoke greatly of her influence in other dimensions.

 _"What is the trouble, Maria?"_

Sixer blinked, the voice echoing in his head. That was…telepathy? But he got the distinct feeling the voice came from the creature with the yellow helmet.

The one with the blue focus looked around the room before his red-eyed gaze settled on Sixer, Crescent, Star, and Pine in turn. There was a grimness in his eyes that made the fur on Sixer's tails rise a little.

It felt like the creature's gaze was stripping him away, layer by layer, until reaching his center.

 _"Someone has desecrated these people,"_ the creature said, mental voice almost snarling.

"That's putting it lightly," the Guildmaster said. "Guys, these three are Merlin, Lien, and Jewels." She motioned to the yellow, pink, and blue beings in turn. "They represent Knowledge, Emotion, and Willpower, respectively."

That explained why the blue creature was looking at Sixer like that. He could see what had happened to him.

 _"Who did this?"_ Jewels asked, looking around the room.

"A triangular-shaped demon named Bill Cipher," Maria replied, her voice and expression grim. "He tore their willpower out and turned Sixer and his family effectively into puppets. They've been stuck like this for…a long time."

The thought of the time they'd spent under Cipher's control made Sixer's heart sink, but it also caused a simmer of anger at the same time, pulling him in two different directions.

 _"And are they still connected to him?"_ Merlin asked.

Sixer noticed Lien looking at him and he looked back at her, confused. It looked like she was attempting to figure him out.

"No," the Guildmaster was saying. "We rescued them; Sixer's connected to me, Crescent's with Stanley, Star is with Sphinx, and Pine is with Mizar. It's been like this for the last three months."

Lien floated closer to Sixer; he leaned back in his chair a little, tails twitching in a show of his nervousness at how close the creature was getting. She was an ally of the Guildmaster's, and to that extent, his, but he could sense a power around this one that made him uneasy.

"To be honest, I only thought of you guys this morning. Sixer's finally broken the barrier that was keeping his emotions back, and—"

 _"So much pain from this one."_ Lien's voice was softer and clearly more feminine than the other two's. _"You're all over the place – oh dear. I can help that part of you calm, if you wish."_

Sixer blinked, then looked over at the Guildmaster before looking back at Lien. "What would that…entail?"

 _"You don't know what to feel at this point, correct?"_

Sixer hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. The anger was simmering there, as well as the sadness and nervousness from his close proximity to the creature. It left him feeling strange and confused.

 _"I can help slot those feelings back into place, but only if you feel you need it. Otherwise, you are going to be floundering while you try to find a way to settle on your own."_

Sixer glanced at the Guildmaster again, and noticed that she was looking back at him with an unreadable expression.

Sixer gained an uncertain expression of his own. The Guildmaster _had_ said that she had brought them here to help, but…

Should he?

"Sixer, the decision is yours to make, not mine."

Sixer looked back at Maria, blinking.

"It's your soul she's here to help," Maria said. "It's your decision to make."

Sixer's ears flicked at that.

 _His_ soul. It was his, wasn't it?

He could feel Lien's gaze on him, and he looked at the creature and nodded. "Okay."

Lien nodded in reply. _"This may feel a little funny."_

She put her paws against his chest and closed her eyes as her entire body began to radiate a pink aura.

Sixer watched as her red eyes gained that pink glow as well. He felt…something…reach into him then and find something felt but not felt at the same time.

The sensation was familiar, and his breathing started to quicken.

 _Shhh._

He felt a pulse of energy as Lien's voice echoed in his mind – it left him feeling warm inside and out, like Maria was using her abilities near him to alter the temperature of the area.

 _This will not take long. Be calm, Stanford Pines._

Sixer breathed in slowly, then exhaled, closing his eyes as the warmth he felt cradled his soul in his chest. The whirlpool of tears and anger and grief calmed in him.

It was still there – he could feel it there, still – but…it wasn't as much of a dangerous, upending force as it had been when he had awoken.

Eventually the warmth faded, and Sixer felt the little paws pull back. He sighed, then opened his eyes again.

 _"Better?"_ Lien asked.

Sixer gave himself a moment. He didn't feel like he was going to break into tears at any moment, but…that sadness was still present.

That guilt at having pulled his family into this state with him, and everything that had been done.

But still…

He nodded. "Thank you."

Lien gave a small smile. _"I know, there is more to heal, but this will help."_

Sixer nodded, then adjusted how he was sitting – he'd slumped a little during the process – and looked around the room at the others.

He blinked when he saw Merlin drawing back from the Guildmaster, brow furrowed and eyes shut.

 _"This is graver than I thought,"_ Merlin said. _"This Cipher creature is mimicking Cyrus' thought of using people as mindless beings enslaved to his will, but he has changed the idea into something just as terrible."_

Cyrus?

That name sounded…familiar….

Sixer frowned. The Guildmaster noticed.

"Sixer, what is it?"

"That name…it's familiar." Sixer's frown deepened. "But it…feels like an old memory; I don't—"

Crescent snapped his fingers. "That ignoramagon mentioned somethin' about a Cyrus havin' a good idea on the right track, but that it wasn't good enough or somethin'."

The Guildmaster's expression darkened, as did Jewels', Merlin', and Lien's.

"If Cipher had a neck, he'd be strangled next time I see him," the Guildmaster said. "Of _course_ he mimicked Cyrus for this."

"You know this man?" Sphinx asked.

"Know him? I _clobbered_ him, and then he snuck around my back while I was away from his dimension and pulled the very thing I was trying to stop. I'm lucky that my friend was able to stop him before things got too bad. Tch. Of _course_ Cipher would take inspiration from him of all people."

Sixer blinked. It seemed strange that the Guildmaster had all these connections back to what had happened to him in one form or another – first the Dark Arms, then the one who had shouted through the portal early on in their imprisonment, then the very Vulpix who had helped him before he had been caught…and now this.

It seemed almost impossible that one person could have this many connections.

"Jewels, is there anything you can do?" The Guildmaster turned her attention to the blue-headed pixie creature hovering in the center of the room.

The creature didn't answer for a moment, then sighed quietly and shook his head. _"As much as I wish I could help, this is one situation where I am incapable of assisting you in returning their willpower to its natural state. This kind of manipulation is something that I have not seen before."_

Jewels motioned with one paw, sending blue sparkles throughout the room. Wherever they stopped in the air, they turned into lines.

No. They _revealed strings._

Sixer's eyes widened as sky blue strings materialized, stretching across the table between himself and Maria. They started at his wrists, his neck and – when he looked down, he noticed they were wrapped around his ankles as well.

And the same fire tattoos he'd seen in the mindscape after Maria had ripped him away from Cipher were glowing bright blue, emblazoned on his wrists.

And directly underneath them…the scars of the manacles he'd been forced to wear under Cipher's control, scarred deep into his skin where there had been _no_ scars before.

 _"He repurposed their willpower,"_ Jewels said as similar connections appeared between Sphinx and Star, Mizar and Pine, and Stanley and Crescent. Each connection had different markings on Sixer's family members – Star had paw prints, Pine had stars that resembled the bat-winged star Mizar had on her sweater, and Crescent had – predictably – dollar signs.

Unfortunately, they also had Cipher-given scars of their own.

 _"I don't…I don't know how I can undo something like this."_

Maria raised her hands…and Sixer saw where the strings ended.

They were attached to the tips of the fingers of her right hand – the hand that she had reached out with after his connection to Cipher had been severed.

Sixer's ears drooped. Of course he was still in a position where he could be treated as a marionette.

But…he had thought their willpower was entirely gone; he hadn't expected it to be changed into something else. But now that he knew it was _there,_ what could be done in order to return it to where it needed to be?

"There's nothing you can do?" Maria questioned. She looked incredibly pale. "Are you sure?"

 _"I can only affect the strength of a person's will. Strengthening their will as it is now will only make the connection between you stronger, and I doubt that is what you want."_ Jewels shook his head. _"I'm afraid we will have to find another solution to this particular problem."_

Maria sighed and dropped her hands. "If that's the case, then…what _can_ we do?"

 _"Keep doing what you have been doing,"_ Merlin replied. He hovered next to Maria's shoulder and placed a paw there. _"You are on the right track to recovery. Perhaps, in the future, you will be able to find a solution that will allow their willpower to once again become a part of their soul, and not merely a connection between two souls. I doubt that you will simply give up on that here."_

"I don't intend to," Maria agreed. She looked over at Sixer. "I guess, for now we just…focus on making sure we're ready for next August."

 _"An excellent plan,"_ Merlin replied.

Sixer nodded. Something was smoldering in him now – anger. Anger against Cipher, for what he had done to them and what he was going to attempt to this world in less than a year's time.

Lien gasped. _"Oh! Looks like Maria's got her hands full with you!"_

"What are you—" Maria yelped and scrambled around the table as the blue strings faded.

Sixer looked at her in confusion, only for his eyes to widen a moment later when he saw he'd unknowingly set the chair on fire.

Oops.

"Okay." Maria pulled the flames into herself, keeping the fire from doing any permanent damage. "Let's head out into the woods and see if we can do anything about helping you get a little more control over that?"

Sixer ducked his head a little. He thought he _did_ have more control over it, but now that his emotions were back in play….

He nodded.

 _"Keep us posted,"_ Merlin said. _"Even if we cannot help now, we may be able to help in the future."_

The Guildmaster nodded and gave the beings a thumbs-up. "You've got it."

With that, the three creatures vanished in the same way they had come.


	20. Training Day

**Chapter 20 – Training Day**

The Guildmaster stopped in the middle of a clearing that was familiar to Sixer. They had been here three months ago, when the Guildmaster had wanted to test Sixer's abilities. It seemed they were going to be here again.

"Always good to have a water hazard nearby in case things get too out of hand," Maria explained as she noticed Sixer's curious look. "I'd do this down near the shore, but I don't know how much attention we're gonna get if we do that."

Sixer nodded. It made sense – keeping something nearby to douse any wandering flames was a good tactic to ensure that nothing would end up destroying the forest.

"Now – what have you got figured out for your abilities so far? You _can_ summon your fire without it needing to be connected to any emotion specifically, but it is responding to your anger, I noticed."

Sixer thought back to the kitchen and nodded.

"So we start there, then figure out what we need to do so that you won't use _as much_ energy as you have been."

"You mean doing this—" Sixer summoned his fire, the flames licking up his forearms almost erratically "—is not energy efficient."

"Nope." The Guildmaster shook her head. "You're actually using up more energy than you need to this way – all it does is make you look a little more intimidating. Which, while that can be a good thing sometimes…it isn't always needed."

"I see."

The fire dissipated as Sixer considered that. The Guildmaster was talking about conserving his energy so that it would last longer depending on the situations that he might end up in. He hadn't considered that before.

"You're suggesting I don't need to summon as much," Sixer said.

"Exactly. I don't know how much energy you've got, and sometimes that means being more cautious about what you use rather than throwing around fire with reckless abandon."

It made sense. But still….

"What would happen if I reached my limit?"

The Guildmaster grinned at that question. "Well, when you start getting to that point, hunger and exhaustion are going to start gnawing away at whatever remains of your energy. At some point, your automatic functions kick in and knock you out until you've rested enough to get some energy back. I've pushed myself to that edge quite a few times – usually against big bads that deserved to get the full brunt."

Sixer nodded. "Which means you know your limits. Are you recommending I do the same?"

He wasn't certain how much energy he had to put towards his ability; maybe the Guildmaster could help him with that.

"Not right now, but it might be helpful later." Maria shrugged. "We're currently not in a position where we need to know how much energy you have on hand on a given day, so for now we won't push that envelope too much."

Sixer tilted his head slightly, considering. "You are suggesting we take things slowly."

"Basically." Maria summoned a small fireball the size of a softball. "Let's start with something basic – a Will O' Wisp." She bounced the fireball off her palm, and it started circling around her at a diagonal, flying down across her chest and then looping back up and over her shoulder. "They're little heat-seeking missiles, basically, but if you remember—"

"Vulpix could use them to cause burns on others," Sixer finished. He tracked the movement of the little fireball curiously. "I remember you showing me the technique, but I don't know if I have the knowledge to replicate it."

"Well, I can help with that." Maria grinned. "First, we need to get your fire summoning under control so you don't use so much and burn yourself out."

Sixer nodded in reply. "Lead on."

The Guildmaster's expression shifted slightly, but she didn't let that stop her from giving the lesson.

The rest of the morning was spent with the Guildmaster explaining some of the finer points of fire summoning, showing Sixer how to create small bits of fire instead of the large amounts that had been left to burn away at his energy while encasing his arms as burning gloves. Showing Sixer how to summon and maintain a small amount of fire was the first thing they tackled, which proved to be a little difficult because of how he had fought for the last several centuries, but it wasn't impossible.

Sixer found the ability to summon small bits of fire rather than the giant amounts much more interesting to work with, instead of the giant swaths of flame that he was used to.

Sixer's stomach grumbled loudly at about noon, causing him to look down and lose concentration on two small orbs that were hovering around his ears. The fire flickered and vanished, and he looked at the Guildmaster with a curious expression.

Maria wasn't the least bit surprised by the sound; she smirked a little. "Well, sounds like we're starting to hit the edges of your limit, but we have been doing quite a bit with focusing on the little guys." She let the two small fire orbs that had been circling her wildly like electrons flicker and vanish. "Do you feel light-headed, Sixer? A little weak in the knees at all?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then shook his head. "Other than the hunger, I feel fine."

"Okay then." Maria tapped her chin, thoughtful, and nodded. "So, we've basically used up all the energy that you picked up at breakfast, which is what I was expecting. It means your well of power is _likely_ similar to mine, which is a lot already."

Sixer nodded, then frowned a little. "How much is a lot, exactly?"

The Guildmaster tapped her chin again, thinking. "I could _probably_ burn this whole forest down in a single burst and go unconscious for a few hours from the power drain." She shrugged. "Probably. It's been a while since I've been pushed over the edge like that."

Sixer went wide-eyed.

Burn down _the whole forest?_ And go _unconscious_ as a result of the energy use?

Just how much power did she _have?_

"The _entire_ forest?" Sixer repeated.

The Guildmaster made a "so-so" motion. "Give or take a half-acre, I think. But I'm not about to do that unless I have a reason to. And right now, I don't see why I should."

Sixer stared, and probably would have continued looking surprised at the Guildmaster's words if his stomach didn't growl loudly again.

"Let's go get some lunch before we get back at this," the Guildmaster offered. "I'm starting to feel a little hungry myself."

Sixer blinked, then nodded a little. "…yeah. Okay."

Maria moved past Sixer, grinning. "Hey, you're making good progress. I didn't nearly have this much control when Lea was teaching me how to use this kind of stuff."

Sixer looked confused. Was she…complimenting him? It felt like such a foreign concept. And the mention of someone else… "Ah...was Lea a Vulpix as well?"

"No, he was human." Maria looked back as Sixer fell into step a little behind her. "He had access to fire magic, and after my powers suddenly manifested he decided to take me under his wing a bit. He only taught me some of the basics, though – I haven't seen him since before the World Collision."

The Guildmaster's expression shifted to one of nostalgia. "I hope that he's doing all right, wherever he is. Keyblade Wielders have as much trouble as World Jumpers do, even if they're focused on a specific area of worlds in the multiverse."

Keyblade?

"I…I don't think I've heard of such people before." Sixer frowned.

"I'm not surprised. They usually only show up when darkness gains a physical form and starts going after people. I'm not saying that Cipher isn't a problem to them, but they usually keep an eye out for something…different."

"So, they chose not to interfere with our series of events because there weren't other creatures involved," Sixer said. "Is…that what you are saying?"

"They're also probably spread a little thin, but…yeah. I don't think anyone was expecting your dimension to go in the direction that it did, Sixer." Maria's expression went sorrowful. "I certainly wasn't."

Sixer's expression dropped at the Guildmaster's words. "I didn't, either."

How would he have known that this was to be his fate? Before, all he had thought about was _stopping_ Cipher…

…hadn't he? It…the thought felt right. It was what his counterparts had done, before he had caught them.

"I know," the Guildmaster replied. "But I refuse to believe that you will be stuck like this forever. Jewels might not know of a way to get your willpower back to where it's supposed to be, but there might be others who _do_ know. We just have to find them."

"What's the point in that if the creature that _represents_ willpower doesn't know of a way?"

Maria stopped and looked at Sixer with a distraught but determined expression. "Jewels isn't all-knowing. He may be a being of determination and all the power that comes with a strong will, but that doesn't mean that he knows everything that can be done with that part of the soul. Cipher's done something that no one else has – as far as Jewels or I know – and that puts us at a disadvantage. I know; I've been in similar situations."

The Dark Arms. Right; they were a common theme.

"But that doesn't mean that you're stuck like this. The multiverse will have an answer; we just need to keep an eye out for it."

Sixer blinked a couple times, confused at Maria's sudden conviction.

Even if the being of willpower wasn't sure of a way, she was still…?

"Besides, you were able to eventually get rescued, right? It'd only make sense that other things would move in our favor," Maria added. "I don't doubt that it's going to be difficult, but we still have to try and reach for it. Does that…make any sense?"

Rescued…? Right, Maria's intervention that had led her to take control of him.

And Cipher hadn't made a move to take them back – yet.

…was there a chance?

"I…I think I might," Sixer said, after a moment. "I'm…I'm not sure _how,_ but...I can see where you're coming from. Maybe it's…an old thought from before?"

"If it is, I'd suggest holding onto it." The Guildmaster paused, then added quickly, "Not order, _suggest._ Villains like Cipher can't win forever. Something is going to undo him, and I'd like to be there when that happens."

Maria gave Sixer a grin that said she was ready to tear that demon limb from limb if it came down to it. He gave her a weak smile in return.

Her confidence almost felt infectious. He just wasn't sure if it was something he was going to be able to hold onto.

 **Time Break**

The idea of "Thanksgiving" was…not one that Sixer was used to. The idea of sitting around a table, eating food and thinking about everything a person could be _thankful_ for wasn't an idea he was used to.

And yet Alex and Karen were talking about getting a turkey for such a dinner.

"We should get a bigger one than we normally do this year because of the guests we have," Karen said. "But _how_ big?"

"Just get two of the size we normally get and we should be fine," Alex replied. "Uncle Crescent and Uncle Sixer eat more meat than Pine and Star do, so I think we'll be fine if we get two birds."

"Maybe, but our paycheck is going to be hurting because of this." Karen frowned. "Our bills have been going up because we've had six more people in the house – not that I'm mad that Uncle Stan and Uncle Ford are home and alive, but…."

"You weren't expecting Uncle Sixer and his family, too," Alex finished. He looked over at Sixer, who was watching the conversation from his spot on the couch.

Karen shook her head. "I hope we can find a solution to everything before the world ends."

"I think we will, considering what Maria's talked about."

Sixer's ear flicked when Alex mentioned the Guildmaster. "She…is very insistent that there is a solution for this," he said carefully.

Karen stiffened a little, looking surprised. Was she not expecting him to speak? It would make sense, considering that the Guildmaster wasn't present.

"She certainly does seem to be that way," Alex agreed. "She doesn't seem one to give up easily."

Sixer shook his head a little. "I think it's…in her nature. As a World Jumper."

"A child put into that sort of position." Karen shook her head. "I wonder what her parents are thinking."

Sixer considered bringing up the idea that maybe the Guildmaster's parents weren't alive any longer, but a voice coming from outside caught his attention.

 _"Hey!"_

Sixer's ears flicked in the direction of the voice, and he turned his head to look at the door with a confused expression.

"That sounded like Mayor Tyler," Alex commented. "I wonder what it is he wants."

"If he's shouting like that, then he probably isn't looking for us," Karen commented. "Come on; help me with the grocery list."

While the two of them went to talking in hushed tones in the kitchen, Sixer stood up and moved towards one of the windows. He looked out, then frowned when he saw Stanford and Stanley step out of their Shack and move towards the mayor. After a moment, the Guildmaster and Vash followed.

What was it that needed their attention?

He tilted his head, frowning as his ears flicked. They were standing in the middle of the clearing now, conversing about something. He could barely pick up the muted voices, but even then the words were unclear.

 _"—folks – can't keep them off – forever—"_

"Curious about what's going on out there?"

Sixer turned at Alex's voice, blinking when he saw the young man looking out of the kitchen. He shifted how he was standing a little, ears tilted back towards the muted voices.

"You could go out there and listen," Alex said. "It's not like anyone's stopping you."

Sixer paused at that. "While that is true, I don't know if this is something the Guildmaster would like or require me to listen to."

"Well, if she doesn't, she can just tell you, right? There's nothing wrong with being curious, Uncle Sixer. I don't see why you have to keep yourself cooped up in here."

Sixer blinked at that.

It didn't take him long to come to a decision.

"Especially if the government finds out that alternate dimensions are a thing and that some of us come _from_ alternate realities," the Guildmaster said as Sixer opened the door. He stuck his head out and looked over, locking eyes with the Guildmaster as he did.

"Which brings me to another question that's been bothering me," Tyler spoke. The Guildmaster's gaze moved back to him, not giving Sixer any sort of signal that told him to move back inside. "If Cipher's coming here at the end of next summer because those four are here, why don't we just move them somewhere else? Keep them moving so that he can't break into any one dimension? It's not like they can go home anyway, if he's—"

"You do that, and there's a pretty high chance that Stanley, Sphinx, and Mizar are going to have to go with us," the Guildmaster replied, cutting Tyler off. "Considering their current positions, I really don't think it'd be a good idea to separate them like that."

They…were talking about making them leave?

"Yeah, no," Stanley agreed. "I'm stayin' here. An' so's Crescent – no ifs ands or buts about it."

Tyler looked surprised. "I…I wasn't aware that there was a chance that – but then, doesn't that mean that he's already—"

"If I may?" Sixer stepped off the porch and approached, looking between the Guildmaster and Tyler with a grim – but cautious – expression.

The Guildmaster gave him a curious look. Sixer half-expected her to nod, but when she didn't give any sign of approval or disapproval, he kept going.

"He isn't here because he isn't _mortal_. He isn't bound by physics like the rest of us are, and he is capable of entering dreams if he isn't blocked off by unicorn spells or plates of a specific metal alloy that are installed over one's skull. That's why he could send us out without needing to be there – at least a part of him always _was."_

Stanford started grimly nodding a little, then stopped. "Are you saying that you didn't get to Jheselbraum? Because if he was in your head at any point, then that means you didn't have the plate installed."

Metal plate? Jheselbraum?

…that sounded familiar.

Maria's eyes widened sharply. "Scrap." She looked at Sixer worriedly. He looked somewhat confused as he frowned and tapped his chin in thought. "Sixer?"

"…Jheselbraum," Sixer murmured. "I think I – yes, I remember. She did put the plate in my head."

"Well then, how was it that Puppeteer was able to get _into_ your head?"

"Puppeteer?" The Guildmaster blinked while Sixer's ears stood up straight at Stanford's question. "Is that what everyone else calls him?"

Puppeteer? That was a new one he hadn't heard.

But what was probably more pressing was the mention of the metal plate. The hazy memories were coming back, becoming clearer – it was something that was supposed to keep Cipher out of his head…right?

So how had Cipher managed to plant his presence in _Sixer's_ head?

He needed to test this.

"Not yet," Stanford was saying, "but they probably will after I drop the paperwork for it down the bottomless pit next week. I've done some calculations and I _should_ be able to get the information to the Council of Fords if I drop the file at—"

Sixer rapped a fist sharply against the side of his head and flinched back with a grunt of pain. He rubbed the spot with an expression of discomfort.

There was no sound of clanging metal from the impact.

That…that wasn't good.

"What'd ya do that for?" Tyler asked in alarm.

"…testing something," Sixer muttered absently.

If there wasn't any sound of clanging metal, then that meant….

"Let me see." The Guildmaster moved over and stood on her toes in order to get a good look at the side of Sixer's head. He remained still as she put one hand on his shoulder and carefully pressed her other hand against his head. The feeling of her fingers in his hair was…not an _unwelcome_ sensation, but it was one that he was not used to. Still, he waited for her to finish, neither moving away or leaning into her touch.

He felt a slight burst of heat, and a part of him felt a little more energetic suddenly. Had she just transferred some of her fire to him?

"…I don't feel any scars." Maria pulled back, frowning. "And it definitely doesn't feel like there's anything harder than ordinary bone under there. Then that means he…he probably pulled it out."

That wasn't a revelation that Sixer wanted to hear. The color started draining from his face.

He _hadn't_ _known that it was missing._

"He pulled it _out?_ " Stanford repeated in alarm. "When?"

"Wouldn't doing something like that leave a mark?" Vash asked.

"Under ordinary circumstances, yes, but…" Stanford frowned worriedly.

"Sixer?" The Guildmaster looked at Sixer with a concerned expression, but that quickly morphed into worry.

"I…I don't remember him removing it," Sixer said shakily. He looked at the Guildmaster, then Stanford. He shook his head slowly. "I don't know when he could have, o-or how."

"That's not good," Stanley muttered.

No, it wasn't.

Was there a chance that – that it had been removed, and Cipher had told him to _forget_ about that event?

Was that even possible?

If it was, he…he couldn't _remember._

He felt shaken to his core at the thought.

The Guildmaster must have noticed, because she wordlessly moved him back to the porch, where they sat down on the edge of it.

"Hey – deep breaths. What matters right now is that we know the plate's missing. We can think about _how_ it was removed when you're a bit calmer."

Right. Okay.

Sixer closed his eyes and focused on calming his speeding heartrate and uneven breathing. Had that started when he had realized he hadn't been able to remember it being removed?

The door opened behind them. "Whoa – what happened out here?"

Crescent.

"Sixer _had_ a metal plate in his head," Vash explained. "It sounds like it got pulled out by…well, by you-know-who."

"Metal plate?"

Sixer felt a little calmer, but not by much. He opened his eyes again and looked over at his brother.

"Is it, uh, somethin' he would'a thought annoyin'?" Crescent asked.

"Considering that it was supposed to keep him from gaining access to my mind, yes," Sixer replied.

He didn't remember clearly if he'd ever told his brother about the metal plate in his head. Or, that had been in his head.

"Uh huh. How big of a chance is there that he pulled it out during a blackout?"

Sixer stiffened at the question, the Guildmaster's eyes going wide.

Tyler looked confused. "Blackout?"

It made sense. If it had been removed during…during one of _those_ times, then he wouldn't have been aware at all. He never was aware of what was being done around him during a blackout.

Granted, he'd only had the one incident since arriving here, but…

"It…could be possible," Sixer said uneasily.

Stanford and Stanley both looked sick at the idea. Sixer didn't blame them.

"Then let's leave it at that. Think you could get another one in there? And maybe some for the rest of us?" Crescent looked over at Stanford and raised an eyebrow.

"You're asking to travel to Dimension 52, reach Jheselbraum the Unswerving, and see if she has the capabilities to install the metal plate in someone who has been physically changed by Cipher," Stanford said flatly.

Sixer's ears flicked back a little. There was truth in that.

"Well, the kid can travel to other dimensions, right?" Crescent looked at Maria.

Could she reach her?

"Only to places that I've had clear visions of, or have seen in cartoons or video games," the Guildmaster replied. "Dimension 52 was only _mentioned,_ and no one has a truly concrete picture of it like Stanford and Sixer do. I won't be able to get there."

"And even then, what chance do we have of her being able to shape the plates so that they will shift with us?" Sixer looked at Crescent, saddened. "My fox form and your—"

"I get it, I get it." Crescent's expression soured. "So metal plates aren't an option. Fine."

"Unicorn hair still works, though," the Guildmaster said. "Right?"

"Well…." Stanford hesitated. "…yes, so long as you stay within its boundaries. It's not something you can carry around very easily."

"I'm sure there's a way. People have thought about maybe making bracelets from it, and putting the mercury in beads made for it or something like that. I'm sure something like that can be done, right?" The Guildmaster focused on Stanford curiously.

Stanford blinked. "I…maybe? I haven't had the idea presented to me in that way before." He tapped his chin. "I'll ask Fiddleford about finding the materials for that…maybe we can create enough to give to every member in town. But then we would…." He groaned loudly. "I would need enough unicorn hair for everyone in Gravity Falls and there is _very little chance_ that we would be able to get that from them. They don't think very highly of us."

"I'll talk to them," Tyler spoke up. "I'm the mayor of the town; they'll—"

"You're talking about creatures that said that Mabel wasn't pure of heart," Maria spoke up, cutting Tyler off.

He looked aghast at the idea. "They did what now?"

Maria sighed. "It's their scam; they claim that they can see who is pure of heart and then they'll hand over their hair. They claimed it's to keep people from bothering them, but that just got them into a fistfight with Mabel and her friends." She ran a hand through her hair, then paused, frowning. "What if I talked to them? They don't know me yet."

"Are you certain that you will be able to get them to assist you?" Stanford responded.

"No, but there's no harm in trying." The Guildmaster shrugged. She looked at Sixer. "When I head out and do that, you don't have to come with me if you don't feel like it. I don't think I'm going to have to do it soon, but I will at some point."

Sixer – who had been looking at her with a somewhat wide-eyed expression – nodded slowly in response. "You – you really would be willing to do this much for us?"

"Of course. I don't like what Cipher – er, _Puppeteer_ – has done to you guys."

Sixer blinked. There was that nickname again. "Puppeteer?"

"Something I came up with," Stanford explained. "To tell your Cipher apart."

"Huh." Crescent tilted his head. "Well, that definitely works."

Sixer blinked, then nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It does."


	21. Holiday Chaos

**Chapter 21 - Holiday Chaos**

Thanksgiving had been quiet, small, and simple, compared to the candy chaos of Halloween. Sixer found himself preferring this.

The chaos that came _after_ it, however, was not what he had been expecting.

As soon as the weekend for Thanksgiving ended, loud, cheery music started blaring from the center of town. Decorations for end-of-year celebrations that Sixer _barely_ remembered started popping up all over the Shacks, and people came in from town proclaiming well-wishes and 'Happy Hanukkah's, 'Merry Christmas'es, and even a few that Sixer had never heard of before.

There was…something in the air, as well. Something he hadn't felt in a long time.

It had taken him a day to put a name to the feeling.

 _Excitement._

But there was likely some tension, too.

"I have _absolutely no idea_ what to get everyone for Christmas!"

Maria tugged at her hair as she looked at the snow on the ground. The white stuff had fallen over the last few days, and it had forced the school to close until the roads could be properly plowed. Apparently, falling in foot-thick blankets was not what normal plows were prepared for.

"Isn't it a bit early to be thinking about that?" asked Alex from nearby. "It's only the beginning of December; we've got a good twenty days."

"I want to beat the rush at the end of the year, if there is one in town." Maria paused, then dropped her head into her hands and groaned. "But I don't have any cash because I don't have a _job_ in town. Damnit."

Sixer tilted his head, ears flicking. Gifts? The idea of giving something away freely – that was it, right?

Maria wanted to find people gifts. Okay. But she didn't have a way to _get_ them legally.

"That could be a problem." Karen stepped out of the kitchen and put her hands on her hips, frowning. "Although, would it be out of the question to make gifts?"

"That would mean getting materials. Which would mean _buying_ materials." Maria grumbled into her hands, then raised her head. "Which leaves me in the exact same position."

"Not completely." Alex sent Karen a knowing look, then looked back at Maria. "Our daughter has a lot of crafting supplies. I'm sure you'll be able to think of something, especially if you ask her for help."

Karen nodded in agreement. "Yes; she's very much into making small gifts for us for Hanukkah and Christmas. I don't see why you can't do the same."

There was an interesting idea. Maple would be willing to do something like that, wouldn't she?

"Maybe…" Maria frowned, scratching her head. "I'll have to see if Mabel or one of her counterparts would be willing to help me with anything. I…I _might_ have a few things I could use in my subspace pocket? I haven't really gone digging in there for a _long_ time, so I don't know if there's anything good in there."

Maria must have a quite a few interesting items in there that she could use. But would she be willing to part with them?

"Well, maybe look there first," Alex suggested. "And then see if you need anything from Mabel."

"…yeah. Yeah." Maria tapped her chin in thought, frowning. "It's been a while since I've done inventory…could get two birds with one stone here…."

Sixer's curiosity was increasing. She was going to go through her subspace?

But what did she _have?_

"Guildmaster, what do you keep in your…subspace?" Sixer asked carefully.

"Lots of things. Journals, old tech, mementos from other worlds – I've got a surplus of berries in there too, in case the trees out in the woods don't last the winter." She ticked the items off on her fingers. "Extra supplies in case I run out of room in my journals – which has happened a couple times…might wanna restock on those soon…." The Guildmaster shook her head. "Know what, I'm just going to do that inventory now before I forget about it. Mind if I take over a room for a bit?"

Alex frowned. "We do have a living room that we haven't been making use of—"

"Great, thanks!" The Guildmaster took off and disappeared before Sixer could move. He stared after her, blinking in confusion.

"She's pretty eager to go and take care of that," Alex commented. "It sounds like she's going to be pretty busy with that."

Which was Sixer's thought as well. She could have asked him for assistance, but…she didn't.

Would she appreciate the help? That was likely the case. She probably hadn't thought of asking for it when she rushed off.

He rose from the couch and followed the Guildmaster to the living room that Alex had mentioned.

He found her sitting on the floor as she was pulling out a red, rectangular bag with black handles. Next to her were already a few stacks of journals. "Guildmaster?"

"Hm?" The Guildmaster looked up. "Hey, Sixer. What's up?"

Sixer hesitated. He came for a reason, he needed to voice his question. "Do you…require assistance?"

"With doing inventory of my stuff, you mean?" The Guildmaster set a stack of mostly-red devices off to the side, the familiar PokeDex she'd used to summon Jewels and the others sitting on top.

Sixer nodded. "You said you had a lot of items…without extra hands, it would take some time, wouldn't it?"

It would make sense that he should be there to help, right?

The Guildmaster paused. "Are you…saying you'd like to help?"

Like to?

…did he?

…it certainly felt that way, didn't it?

"I-if you think you require it – if you don't, I can—"

"No, no, it's okay, Sixer." She held up a hand, cutting him off. "If you're up for helping me with this, I'm not against it; having a little company while I do with might be a good thing, actually." She smiled a little. "I just didn't want to press you into anything you didn't feel like doing, that's all."

Sixer relaxed. She was all right with the assistance. That was good. He stepped into the room and sat down across from her.

The journals and devices she had already pulled out attracted his attention. How did she have that much already?

"I haven't started counting things yet. I'm getting these out for now, to look things over." The Guildmaster put a hand on a stack of journals. "These are recordings of all the places I've been, down to the minor details. Everything that I don't throw into these two ends up in the rest of the volumes."

The Guildmaster pulled out two red journals as she spoke. One had a globe on the cover, the other a phoenix. He had seen her writing in them before.

But…those stacks…

"How…how many?"

"Hm?" The Guildmaster was grinning.

"How many worlds have you been to?"

The Guildmaster paused in the middle of pulling that familiar orange, ratty backpack out of her jacket. "Um…you know, it's been a while since I've really sat down and counted. There's quite a few, though. Now you've got me curious – I'll have to sit down and go through my memories and count how many I've been to. When I'm done taking inventory on my stuff."

Sixer nodded. That made sense. Tackling one problem at a time was better than taking both at once.

"Why do you ask?" The Guildmaster set the backpack aside and started pulling out sacks. There were fruits sewn on the sides. It took Sixer a moment to recognize them as Berries.

He blinked at her question, tilting his head. He could feel his tails swaying behind him as he thought – that was a strange sensation. "I'm…I'm curious?"

That felt like the right word for what he was feeling.

The Guildmaster's own curious expression persisted. It seemed she wanted more of an answer than that.

Well…he had been spending a _lot_ of time thinking to himself. Both about his own situation and….

"The Dark Arms came after you for a reason. Maybe the key to why they did before is in the past?"

Maria blinked. "You mean, maybe they came across what I'd done before and that got them to cause the – the World Collision?"

Sixer blinked. "They chose you for a reason. It would…make sense."

It really did. There had to be more World Jumpers besides Maria, so why would the Dark Arms choose _her_ over any other ones that may be living in the multiverse?

The Guildmaster looked thoughtful. "That might be something to look into. Later. I'd like to see if I have anything gift-worthy in my subspace first."

Sixer nodded. "Of course."

He wondered if the Guildmaster was just saying that, or if she really was going to think about it.

It took a while for the Guildmaster's subspace to be emptied. There were a large number of devices and trinkets that she had on-hand that he hadn't seen before – and if he had, he barely remembered them.

But the amount of computing devices that Maria had with her was astounding, especially considering that she was likely able to access the internet using her own mind.

"I hadn't realized I was carrying so much old tech with me," the Guildmaster commented, looking over the pile of laptops and touch screen devices. That pile alone took up most of the space on the couch behind her.

 _Old_ tech? A lot of it looked quite advanced for Earth!

"McGucket might like something from that…maybe I can do a hard reset on some of those if that hasn't happened already and give the kids something to mess with. I mean, it's not like I _need_ to use laptops and stuff like that anymore."

There was an idea. But…still, there was _so much_ here! Journals, the berries, the technology – even a number of trinkets that had likely been picked up over the course of the Guildmaster's time traveling.

It made the living room an absolute _mess._

"Okay." The Guildmaster folded her arms across her chest, frowning. "Let's see…what to do for Christmas presents…."

"Guildmaster, how can you carry this much and not notice the weight?"

"Hm?" The Guildmaster blinked. "Oh – subspace pockets don't have any weight to them. They're basically pocket dimensions you can access to store things. I think the theory goes that everyone has one, but not everyone has easy access to them. I had to learn how to access mine from my cousin, who figured it out on his own." She smiled a little, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Besides, I have other things to worry about besides the weight of my material wealth."

Sixer's expression shifted. He could guess what the Guildmaster was referring to.

The Guildmaster looked around the room again. "I'm gonna start with the things I want to keep. My journals are a definite start."

She started grabbing the first stack of journals next to her, taking the books one at a time and throwing them under her jacket. Each one disappeared before it could hit the floor, leaving Sixer a little wide-eyed at the sight. They were gone in a matter of moments, leaving a clear space on the floor where the stacks of books used to be. There were five left behind – blank ones, of different colors.

"Hm." The Guildmaster picked up a burgundy one. "I'll write down the stuff for Gravity Falls in this one, I think. Later, though." She tossed that into her jacket as well. "Now for the rest of this stuff."

Sorting through the contents of the room took some time. There were so many souvenirs that the Guildmaster had from her travels – each one had its own story, but she didn't seem to be focusing on telling them at this point in time. That was fine with Sixer – that wasn't the intent of what they were doing today.

But…

"Guildmaster, what's in that crate?" Sixer nodded to the wooden box Maria was leaning against.

"Hm?" She glanced back. "Oh, that?" The Guildmaster moved to one side, showing the mark stamped on the crate – a skull and crossbones with a straw hat sitting on top. "It's a carton of alcohol made from the berries. I don't get drunk, so I haven't really had an interest in drinking it." She paused. "It…might be interesting to see what Stanley thinks of this, actually. I'll see about asking him about it later, maybe. Or keep them for a gift later, one of the two."

The crate disappeared in a flash, leaving behind fading sparkles. The sight caused Sixer's eyes to widen quickly. She hadn't even moved her jacket! How had she—

The Guildmaster chuckled. "Yeah, that happens if I put anything that big into my subspace. Or bigger; I've done that a couple times."

"…could you teach me?"

"Hm?" Maria blinked a couple times. "You mean – teach you how to get into your subspace pocket?"

Sixer nodded. This was a useful ability that could come in handy in the future. Especially if he needed to carry something and he didn't have a backpack or anything similar.

"I don't see why not," the Guildmaster replied. "We're gonna have to do it later though, I think…if that's okay with you, I mean."

Sixer held up his hands in a placating sort of gesture. "Whatever you think is best, Guildmaster."

Maria bit her lower lip at his response, but nodded. "Okay."

Eventually, the room was cleaned up of trinkets and tech, which left it feeling even more empty than it had been when they'd started.

At least, it felt that way, but Sixer had the feeling that there was a side table in here that hadn't been there before.

"Glad that's done," Maria commented. She stretched her arms above her head and grunted. "It's been a couple centuries since I've gone over everything like that; it probably needed to be done."

Sixer blinked. "Can't you keep track of the contents of your subspace without needing to go through it, Guildmaster?"

Maria blinked at the question as she lowered her arms. "Well…technically, yes. But it's in the principle of the thing. As much as I am currently robotic, I…I like being human. It's who I _was,_ before all this. So I try to hold onto the little things."

That struck a chord with Sixer – or, more accurately, with his memories of Crescent. No matter what had happened to them, he had still tried to be…who he had been.

"…I think I see a little better now why Crescent held onto acting so much like he always did, even in the forms of others," he said quietly.

Maria's expression morphed, and she sighed at the same volume. "Everything's going to be all right eventually. We just…we need more time than we have."

Sixer nodded.

 **Time Break**

The rest of December was…chaotic. But not in the same chaotic that Cipher was.

Because of all the end-of-year holidays that the people of Gravity Falls threw together, it became a colorful chaotic mess of tradition upon tradition that changed depending on the day – or even depending on the _hour_ of the day. The Pines were encouraged to lead the Hanukkah celebrations because it was _their_ tradition, and the Mabels took to it with great enthusiasm.

Star actually assisted them, much to Sixer's own surprise – he barely remembered Hanukkah, so he didn't add as much of a voice as his counterparts did. Star likely only helped because her counterparts encouraged her to do so. It…seemed to be helping. She was becoming a little more outgoing than she had been in previous months.

However, Sixer's own limited to non-existent knowledge of the holidays meant that he ended up getting a crash course in _everything._ Every tradition – excluding any that could become bloodfests – were utilized and celebrated every single night in December, even when the parents had to take their children out of the celebrations before they went too late. School was still apparently a thing, despite all evidence to the contrary.

There was just _so much_ going on, from Hanukkah to something apparently called "Candlenights," and while that made everyone go a little crazy, it was a chaos that _wasn't_ from Cipher.

And as cautious as Sixer was about it, he had to admit this was a better chaos to be a part of than anything Cipher could cause.

Although…he still couldn't quite wrap his mind around the idea of giving and getting _gifts._

Especially when Maria decided to surprise them with things over the course of Hanukkah.

"Are ya sure ya want me ta have this?" Fiddleford looked over a touchscreen cell phone that Maria gave him. "What if ya need ta contact people?"

"I've got an internal comm system; I'll be all right. Besides, this is an old model, and it's seen more wear than any phone ever _should._ I figure you can use the tech for something still, maybe see how something from another dimension fares in comparison to anything that exists here."

"Ya mean this came from another dimension?!"

Fiddleford's reaction was filled with an excitement and eagerness that Sixer hadn't heard from him in a long time. It made him pause in the act of unwrapping his own gift.

Before his thoughts had the chance to drift to the melancholy, Stanley spoke up.

"Heck kinda drink is this? Some kinda fruity beer?"

"It's made from those berries – you know, the trees I planted out in the woods?" Maria called across the room. "As much as they are used for healing properties, they apparently can cause some _wild_ results when mixed with alcohol. Since I don't _get_ drunk, I figured that you'd be interested in trying some."

Stanley grinned, as did his counterparts, who _also_ were given a mix of various types of Berry beer. "Don't mind if I do."

 **"Where'd ya get this stuff from, kid?** " asked the hulking, muscular demon that was Andrew, Mizar's Stanley.

Sixer felt something unnerving from him, somehow, but he wasn't sure what it was or why. Perhaps it had something to do with what had changed Andrew in the first place?

"A dimension where I joined a group of pirates for a while," Maria replied. "We made friends with a barkeep who experimented with some things from my orchard. She left me instructions to make more, too, if I ran out."

Stanley blinked. "…Fidds, how good are ya at buildin' a still?"

…of course Stanley would go in that direction.

Fiddleford scratched his chin. "Depends, do ya want moonshine or somethin' else?"

Stanley grinned. "I'd love ta see what else we can make with that stuff when we get a steady supply. Build whatever ya want; _I_ just want ta taste test everythin' that comes out of it."

Stanford snorted. "You don't know what you're getting into."

Sixer agreed. Even now, the memory of Fiddleford's moonshine was working its way back to the present – slight pain from absent willpower included. He'd gotten drunk after one sip of the stuff and woke up with a hangover that could kill the dead two days later.

"Too late!" Fiddleford cackled. "Expect it when the weather warms up!"

Maria chuckled while Sixer finally got around to opening his gift.

He was so startled by what the box contained that he barely caught Maria's response to Fiddleford's and Stanley's conversation.

Inside, nestled in the center, was a circular badge with a pair of wings. There was a glowing red gem in its center, glowing with its own inner fire.

He _recognized_ this.

"Guildmaster?"

Maria turned and looked over with a curious expression.

"Why are you giving _me_ this?" Sixer held up the badge. "I…I never joined your Guild officially; why—"

"I wanted to give you one when I first met you," Maria replied. "That badge would have let me stay in contact with you, just to make sure things went okay on your end. Since you're calling me Guildmaster still, I figured that I might as well make it a bit more official." She grinned. "You can consider yourself a part of the PokeExplore Guild now, Sixer."

Sixer's eyes went wide. That was…that wasn't what he had been expecting. At all.

"PokeExplore?" Mabel repeated. "What kind of a Guild is that?"

"One made up of creatures that look like normal animals with superpowers based on elements. We went around and helped others and saved the world a few times." Maria rubbed the back of her head, looking somewhat sheepish. "It was the second time I was away from home; I was one of the founding members."

"That is so _cool!"_

It may have been 'cool' from Mabel's perspective, but there was more to it than that. Much more. Being called a member of a Guild that Sixer had only visited briefly – and that Maria apparently still kept _going_ somehow – wasn't something that he had been expecting.

At the same time, he remembered what being near the Guild had been like, and the rumors that had surrounded it.

That only those who got to know the two Guildmasters _personally_ were allowed in without needing to fight for a place first.

That you had to prove you were _trustworthy_ to get such a position.

Did…did Maria…?

It was a thought that plagued Sixer over the course of the next few days, as the other Pines family members gained badged of their own in their gifts.

If she trusted him that much…and saw him as…

…perhaps there was something that he could do for her yet.


	22. Christmas

**Chapter 22 – Christmas**

"IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Maple's yell rocketed throughout the house, abruptly waking Sixer up.

He grumbled and threw an arm around the top of his head, protecting his ears as Maple ran past the bedroom, yelling, "GET UP GET UP GET UP IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Crescent made a muffled noise from across the room that sounded like grumbles of his own. "It's the crack of dawn why's she _up?"_

Sixer grumble-snorted. "Not time to be awake."

"You said it."

There came a knock on the doorway, and someone stepped in.

"…I guess you heard Maple already," Tyrone said. "But, uh, yeah. There's gonna be breakfast downstairs soon, and then we're all going to Grunkle Andrew's Shack to unwrap presents. You, uh, you're going to need to get up. Because there are Christmas gifts for you too."

Gifts? For them?

Sixer pulled the arm away from his head and looked over at Tyrone, blinking.

"Really?" Crescent sounded doubtful as Star and Pine started to climb out of their beds. "Gifts? Us?"

Tyrone nodded. "Yeah. Santa Claus brought you stuff to."

 _Santa Claus?_

Sixer hadn't heard that name in a _long_ time. Wasn't he supposed to be a fictional character? And here Tyrone was talking about him as though he was _real?_

The mere idea of it got Sixer's curiosity going, and that pulled him out of bed moments after Crescent's irritated sigh.

"All right. But I'm tellin' ya, kid, there's probably not gonna be anythin'."

"We won't know until we start handing out the presents!" Maple popped in, grinning. "Comeoncomeoncomeon!"

Sixer, Crescent, Star, and Pine were dragged downstairs by the rather enthusiastic Maple, where they had a hearty breakfast. Afterwards came the short trek across the clearing, with large armfuls of presents, to Mizar's home.

Sixer wasn't sure what he was expecting when he stepped inside. For one thing, the fact that the living room was bigger was a minor surprise. The Christmas tree was not a surprise, but the piles of presents that were already around it _were._

"Good morning," Sphinx greeted in a warm tone as they approached. "Maple woke you all up early, as well?"

"You could say that." Stan grunted as he put down the large present he'd been carrying. Ford followed suit with his armful. "Got up at the crack a' dawn an' started shriekin' about Christmas more than I've ever heard from _anybody."_

Maple gave a sheepish grin, but something about her said she was far from sorry. Mizar held up a hand, and the two girls high-fived.

Sixer decided to sit at a distance from her, closer to the gifts but not so far away from the door that it would be difficult to run and get Maria if need be.

Thankfully, the need to go look for her wasn't something that lasted.

The door opened, and Stanford and Stanley stepped through, followed by Vash and Maria.

"Is it just me, or is this room bigger than it normally is?" Maria asked.

"It is!" Mizar confirmed cheerily. "You got the presents Santa Claus left?"

"Yeah." Maria carefully moved around Stan and Ford, nodding to Sixer as she passed him and stopped next to the giant stack of presents in front of the Christmas tree. She shook her jacket out as Vash dropped his armful of presents off, and the gifts she had stuffed into her subspace came tumbling out and joined the small mountain. She looked around the room, a curious expression on her face as she took in everyone who was present.

Then she moved and sat next to Sixer on the floor, an action that didn't surprise him so much anymore. More of his focus was on the large number of wrapped gifts that were piled up.

Was all of this just for those present here? In this room?

It almost felt too good to be true.

"So, how are we gonna do this?" Maria asked.

"We were discussing that before you arrived," Sphinx replied from where he was lounging near the back of the group. Star was sitting in front of him, leaning against his side as one wing was unfurled in front of her. The position almost looked like a protective one. "I _believe_ the plan is for the gifts to be handed out, and we just go open them all at once."

It made sense. No one was going to want to take turns and wait when there were gifts right in front of them.

"Well, in that case, we'd better get these handed out, right?" Maria reached for the pile of presents and started passing them around. "Stanley…Stanford…Dipper…Mabel….Alex…Alex…Stanford…Stan…Andrew…Mizar…."

About halfway through, Sixer realized the gifts were labeled with everyone's nicknames, rather than just saying one or another variation on the name.

And…he _had gifts._

Granted, almost none of them didn't say who they were _from,_ but…there was a small pile of them in front of him.

He wasn't sure what to make of this.

Once the presents had been handed out, Mizar pushed the pile of presents for her missing grunkle towards the bookcase at the back of the room. "Come on, Grunkle Journal! You probably got a ton of books!"

Something in the bookcase rattled, and a journal with the familiar six-fingered sigil worked itself out of the bookshelf and fell to the floor.

Sixer's ears twitched curiously, but his expression quickly changed to alarm when the book threw itself open, and the pages rose into a humanoid shape that vaguely looked like a Ford.

Except _this_ counterpart was flat, and had had no discernable facial features beyond a pair of glasses that manifest where his eyes _should_ have been. The glasses flashed immediately, hiding what was behind them.

 **-I do not doubt that I have been gifted with knowledge-**

The way Journal's voice echoed in his own head made Sixer wince. It still sounded like himself, yes, but at the same time Journal's voice carried a power with it that he had only _felt_ when a certain demon had been present.

This counterpart was a demon, and a powerful one at that, that much was certain. What _sort_ of a demon, however…Sixer had his guesses.

Knowledge, perhaps. It would make sense.

He decided to turn his attention away from his counterpart – it wouldn't make sense to try and figure him out on their first meeting – and set to unwrapping his first gift.

The burgundy wrapping paper was cast aside, revealing a plain box. He was about to pull it open when Maria gasped next to him.

"No way…"

Sixer looked over. "What is it?"

Maria reached into the box and pulled out what looked like a smaller box with a cartoonish drawing on the side.

" _Jonny Quest?"_ Stan leaned over, frowning as his one eye scanned the cover. "That sounds…kinda familiar, actually."

Maria jolted a little when she heard him, then nodded. "This is…this is the _exact_ series collection that Mom and Dad had…back home…I thought it'd gotten destroyed when—"

She cut herself off, and Sixer went a little wide-eyed. This was a part of her parents' past? Something from _home_ that she had thought she had lost?

But…how?

Maria turned the box over in her hands. "This is one of Mom and Dad's first World Jumps."

"Huh?" Stan frowned. "Whaddaya mean by that?"

"World Jumpers sometimes get recordings of their adventures made, if it's based in a world they are used to seeing as fiction. _Jonny Quest_ was one of their adventures, but it wasn't their first one I don't think."

Maria stared at the packaging for a moment longer, then set it aside and started tearing the other boxes open. The other, smaller boxes – likely containers of recordings like the first was – didn't have any titles that Sixer recognized, although some had seen some wear.

It made Sixer…curious about his own gifts.

And also cautious. Was there something here from his own past that he might not...

The thought caused a twinge of pain in his chest at the memory of something he no longer had. He winced a little, then shook his head and cautiously opened the box.

The box's contents were the _last_ three items he was ever expecting to see again.

For a moment, he thought it might have been an illusion. Even as Maria talked to the others about how important what she had recovered was, he shakily reached into the box and pulled out three _very familiar_ books.

His journals. He knew that had to be true.

His breath hitched. It almost felt paradoxical.

"…how?" Maria was looking at him, wide-eyed. "How could those have survived, much less gotten here?!"

"I…I don't…" Sixer shook his head slowly. He hadn't thought these were still around, much less…

The last time he had seen them…

Sixer looked across the room at Pine, who seemed to be focused on an unfamiliar plant in front of him. "Pine."

Pine looked up, and Sixer held up the journals.

Sixer made a sound that was as close to a nervous chuckle as he could currently manage. It felt...strange, to attempt a laugh. It sounded more like he was coughing. "What are the odds, do you think?"

Pine's eyes went wide-eyed. Everyone else was quick to match his expression. "Impossible… he – he _burned_ those."

"He always does," Stanford replied. "But they usually come back when Weirdmageddon is reversed. How could you have them _now?"_

"Who got you those?" Maria reached for the box and grabbed the that was hanging onto the wrapping paper.

Sixer already knew what she was going to find.

"…no sender." Maria frowned. "But then…that'd mean—"

"Santa Claus did that?!" Mabel gasped loudly. "But – how did he—"

"I doubt we'll ever know all his secrets," Stanford replied.

Sixer set aside two of his journals and started paging through one of them. Memories started trickling back slowly with every drawing and every entry concerning the creatures that had lived in the woods of his home.

…that likely meant he was going to have to do some editing in his third journal, which he hadn't opened yet.

While Maria continued to mutter and go through her own gifts, Sixer decided to – reluctantly – set aside his journals and continue to open what remained of his gifts.

He was greeted with supplies that would allow him to make _another_ journal, if he so desired, as well as a single book on Asian folklore, with an added note that not everything known about the creatures within was recorded by human hands yet.

"…what is this?"

Maria's question got Sixer's attention, and he glanced over. She was putting aside a thick packet of papers, gaze focused on an envelope. He watched curiously as she opened the envelope and read the note inside – then did a double-take, surprised.

"What is it?" Sixer asked.

"Could you read it aloud?" Mabel asked. "If you don't want to, that's—"

Maria started reading before Mabel finished speaking.

"To Maria, known as Flare-Up by Cybertronians, Fire Storm by pirates, and World Jumper and its variations by the rest of the worlds you have traversed, I give you this.

"Your life, irrevocably changed as it is, has changed many others for the better. But the ones you touched the most are the ones you were forced to leave behind as time moved forward in your home. The gifts I have given you are a portion of what I have – so far – managed to salvage. Included in the last package this year is a recorded history I have found written by someone outside of your multiversal access. It does not tell of your current endeavors quite yet, although I believe that will be out in the open soon as well. Your story is touching other worlds, and you deserve to know how.

"I will continue to restore that which you have lost to the creatures known as Dark Arms, which are lost to time and space and are both here and not here at the same time. Keep your wits about you, Dimension Walker, and continue to do what you have.

"For in order to save the many, sometimes you must focus first on saving the few.

-Odin."

Maria lowered the note, wide-eyed and a little shell-shocked.

"…well, that confirms who the gifts are coming from." Stan looked at Ford, who nodded in agreement

"There are people writing _fanfiction_ about me," Maria said. She sounded breathless.

"What, seriously?" Stanley frowned. "Yer kidding, right?"

Maria looked down at the packet of papers and pulled out the first page. Sixer leaned over so that he could get a look.

The title page was simple, but considering who they were about….

 _Maria's Adventures: A Compilation of Stories by FourthWallBreaker/CrossingTheFourthWall/crossroadsdimension._

"This is incredible," Maria said in amazement. "I didn't think that anyone was able to write something like this, much less that I'd get to actually _see_ it. Incredible."

"So is this stuff that's made up about you that never really happened or—"

"No, it's the actual events." Maria looked at Stan with a wide grin crossing her face. "I'll have to look it over later more thoroughly – it's going to be interesting, getting an outsider's perspective on what I've done. But later." She set the package aside.

That was…an incredible gift. To think that there were those out beyond who were aware of current events.

…was there a chance that they were aware of what he had done, as well? Aware of what had _happened_ to cause his current state, unlike his counterparts?

There was something else nagging at his mind, however. He had been, over the course of the last month, started playing with an idea a little.

Would it be shot down? This might be his only chance to ask.

"…Guildmaster?"

Maria blinked at Sixer's hesitant tone, then turned her head and looked at him curiously. "What is it, Sixer?" A frown crossed her face a moment later when she saw that he was nervous. "Is something wrong?"

Sixer jolted a little at the question. "No, no, it's just – I'm…"

How was he going to word this?

"When you…when you first introduced yourself, you said your name and then your title." Sixer paused again. "Is it…is it all right to refer to you by your name?"

For a moment, it felt like he'd stepped over an unseen line that he hadn't been aware of before now. Everyone in the room was just _staring_ at him.

"If you would prefer that I don't, then—"

"Sixer, I gave you my name first _because_ that's what I was most okay with," Maria cut Sixer off. He blinked in surprise. "I've had the word 'Master' roll off my tongue before, and I know that it isn't pleasant. But at the same time I could guess that you _weren't_ used to calling someone by their actual name instead of a title, so I offered Guildmaster as an option because that's the one I'm most used to hearing. If you want to call me Maria, I'm all for it. But if still don't feel comfortable with the idea of treating me more like an equal, sticking with Guildmaster is fine, too. I'll answer to both."

Sixer hadn't been expecting that from Maria. But at the same time, he likely should have.

He caught sight of the surprised look Crescent was giving him. Was he really that…that surprised, that he had asked this?

Sixer nodded. "Thank you for…for clarifying…Maria."

Thinking it had been one thing. Saying her name required some effort. He didn't know if he'd be able to do it frequently or repeatedly yet.

But when Maria suddenly grabbed him in a hug, pulsing with warmth, he got the feeling that things were...better, than they had been before.


	23. Unicorns

**Chapter 23 – Unicorns**

The end of an old year brought in a new one.

And the first month of what was – apparently – 2015 was moving far more slowly than the last four or five had been.

Alex had said it was because there were no holidays in January and the doldrums of winter were getting to everyone. Sixer felt it was more the weather than the absence of holidays. It left him feeling tired. And restless.

But he couldn't _do_ anything because his _tails_ were knotting up horribly.

He hadn't thought much of the discomfort at first. The pain in his tails from the knotted-up fur had been mild and ignorable.

Now it was more than a mild inconvenience.

"Grunkle Sixer, are you okay?"

Sixer's ears flicked, and he glanced over. Mabel with a maple leaf on her sweater.

He was about to open his mouth to answer when Maple looked at him with a forceful, worried expression.

"Your tails look horrible," Maple said.

Sixer blinked, then sighed and let his pre-planned answer drop out of his head. "They…do feel that way, yes."

"I could get them out?" Maple approached the couch. Sixer's tails were sprawled across the cushion next to him, taking up a good deal of space. Knots and tufts of fur that were in the process of being shed stuck up all over the place, making the tails a great mess.

Sixer's tails shifted away from Maple's hands. "I'd appreciate it if you asked Maria, first. Just to be…certain."

Maple looked surprised, then frowned. "Are you sure?"

Sixer hesitated. "Well, uh, no, not really. But I would feel better if you at least let her know."

Maple's eyes widened. "Maybe she'll want to help! I'll go get her right now!" She promptly scrambled out of the room. Sixer heard the front door slam a moment later.

He didn't have too long to wait. A few minutes later, Maple came running back in, almost dragging Maria behind her. The look on her face took a second for him to decipher.

…was it sympathy? That was likely the case – she _had_ been a furry creature at one point, early in her travels.

"Hey, Sixer." Maria moved more into his line of sight.

Sixer looked over and nodded in response.

"Maple told me what's going on. If you're willing, I can help get the knots out, but I don't think it's going to feel very pleasant."

Willing. He felt a twinge in his heart, but cast the feeling aside quickly. His tails shifted in response. "Do what you must."

She must have momentarily forgotten that he couldn't have a _will_ to do _anything._

Maria sat on the couch, careful not to move Sixer's tails. He didn't look back to watch what she was doing.

"How deep are the pockets in that?" Maple asked.

"Almost bottomless. But it does have its limits, unlike the subspace pocket." Sixer heard the shifting of plastic. "Think of it like a…a Bag of Holding, I guess."

Sixer's ears perked up. A Bag of Holding?

"A bag of what?" Maple sounded confused.

"It's a bag that's used in a certain math-based tabletop game that can carry things without needing to worry about the weight capacity. It does have a limit to how much it can hold, though."

Sixer felt something enter the fur of one of his tails. It felt like a comb. Almost as soon as the comb started moving, however, it became entangled in one of the knotted clumps that had taken over Sixer's tails.

"Oh geez, this is bad," Maria muttered. "This is probably gonna hurt a bit Sixer, not gonna lie."

Sixer braced himself against the back of the couch and glanced over at Maria, prepared for whatever was going to happen next.

He barely managed to hold back a pained grunt as Maria winced and pulled at the fur in order to get the comb and the clump loose. It felt like it took an eternity before the troublesome fur was removed. It left Sixer's tail throbbing in pain as he looked between Maria and the furball she had in one hand.

"We're not done by a long shot, I'm afraid," Maria said apologetically. "You think we should keep going or take a bit of a break?"

Sixer blinked as the pain faded a little in his tails. "Wouldn't it…be better, if we made sure this didn't happen again?"

"Are you sure you want to do all six tails and go through all that at once?"

Sixer shrugged. "I've felt worse, Guildmaster. I'm prepared."

Well, not completely prepared, but he had felt worse pain than this.

Maria winced, as did Maple, who was sitting on the floor watching. "Well…all right. If you insist."

"Do you think I could help?" Maple asked. "To – to make this go faster, I mean."

"Yeah, sure – hang on, I've got another brush in here…." Maria reached into a clear, plastic container of some kind that held a number of different styles of brushes and combs. Was that what Maria had brought out for this?

Maria pulled out a brush with thick, clear bristles. "I'm looking for the big snags with this one; think you can back over and look for the smaller ones with this?"

"Sure!" Maple took the other brush and sat down next to Maria. She noticed Sixer was still watching the two of them. "Everything's gonna be better soon, Grunkle Sixer!"

Sixer wasn't sure if "soon" was going to come as quickly as the two of them wanted it to.

The entire process started as painful. Sixer fought with himself to keep his tails in place for Maria's and Maple's sake, rather than pulling them closer to himself. He gripped the couch tightly, gritting his teeth with every tug that the two made against the troublesome fur that had set in.

Something – instinct, he supposed – was suggesting he should snarl and snap at them to get them to _stop,_ but he was somehow able to resist.

 _Maria wouldn't like it, so I shouldn't._

Eventually, the pain started to lessen. The process was slow, but Sixer noticed that the throbbing pain left behind when fur was pulled out wasn't…as noticeable.

Also, Maria and Maple brushing his fur in this manner felt rather…nice.

He relaxed out of the bracing position he'd taken against the couch as the two kept going. He didn't feel like stopping them – they might find another knot or two, after all, and he didn't want to end up finding them later when the knots became more than a little problem.

His thoughts started to wander a bit. Maria and Maple were doing this for his sake, he wasn't required to assist them in brushing his own tails – there was a strange thought.

No, it really wasn't all _that_ strange, was it? Maria had done a lot of things for him, despite the fact that he could very well have been told to do them himself.

She had said frequently that this place was a safe one, too….

He let himself drift. If they needed him, they would get his attention.

In the meantime, he would enjoy this particular feeling.

As Sixer sighed quietly and drifted into sleep – or, a relaxed state resembling sleep, perhaps – a low, deep rumbling sound started in his chest. Sixer hardly noticed it on his part, as it only sent him deeper into his relaxed state.

He was safe here. He could let his guard down.

 **Change in POV**

Sphinx, who was lounging in the second living room with Star, Pine, and Crescent, tilted his head. "Do any of you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Crescent frowned. "We don't all got yer hearing, Sphinx."

"It…it sounds like there's a motor running somewhere in the house." Sphinx frowned. "But I doubt that Ford has set foot in his lab since he returned, other than perhaps to dismantle the portal. But he would have done that by now, so what else…?"

He turned his head this way and that, trying to find the source. After a moment, he rose to his feet.

"You're just hearing things," Crescent said as Sphinx started over to the door. "Honestly, Sphinx."

"I am _not_ hearing things," Sphinx insisted. "There is something rumbling in another room and I am going to find out what it is." He stepped out of the living room.

Star stood up and started to follow.

"And why are you goin' after him?" Crescent asked.

"I'm…I'm curious?" Star looked at her grunkle. "If he says there's something going on, then there probably is something, right? What if he needs help?"

Crescent and Star stared at each other for a moment. Then Crescent sighed and grumbled before pushing himself off the couch.

"All right, all right. Let's go have a look for this thing that he thinks he's hearing." He moved to follow after Sphinx. He didn't need to look back to know that Star and Pine were right behind him.

They caught up to Sphinx outside the doorway to the living room, about to go in. He looked over as the others approached.

"The sound is coming from in here," Sphinx explained, nodding to the doorway.

Now that he was closer, Crescent could certainly hear _something._ It seemed like the air was vibrating.

"I don't think you're hearing anything," Crescent said anyway. "You must be hearing things or something."

Sphinx frowned at that, then turned and walked into the room. "I swear I'm—"

He suddenly cut himself off as Crescent, Star, and Pine followed him into the room.

"Well, this is unexpected," Sphinx said.

Unexpected _nothing._

Crescent's eyes went wide when he saw Maria, Maple, and Sixer on the couch. The two girls were amongst his tails, brushes in hand. It looked like they'd been giving his tails some much-needed attention, judging by the small _mountain_ of fur next to the couch. But it was Sixer himself who got Crescent's attention the most.

His brother was lying against the back of the couch, turned so that his tails scattered across the rest of the couch. As Crescent watched – and Maple motioned for them to keep their volume down – Sixer pulled his legs up, two tails curling over himself.

It wasn't Sixer's current sleepy position that was startling to Crescent, however.

It was the loud, rumbling motor of a noise he was making.

Crescent could _feel_ it in the air as the sound almost filled up his ears. It felt like his body was trying to loosen up and relax, but he didn't let it.

"…has he ever done anything like this before?" Maria asked.

It took Crescent a moment to find his words. The sound had a really relaxing effect.

He shook his head slowly. "No. He hasn't _ever_ done that."

"…really?" Maria sounded a little surprised.

"Yeah." Crescent stuck his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants. "Isn't that somethin' that some animals do, anyhow? Didn't think I'd hear it from him."

"I guess he has some instincts that make him act that way." Maria frowned. "But yeah, cats do this kind of thing. Usually when they're in a place where they're in a position of safety, as far as I—" She cut herself short, eyes widening. "That's it."

Maria pulled her hands out of Sixer's fur and rested them on top of his tail, not digging in. Crescent didn't know if she was doing something else on top of that, but she got reaction.

The rumbling got _louder._

…what was it called when cats did it? Purring? Sounded about right.

"Sixer's guard is down," Maria said. "Completely. He's…he's not expecting anyone to try to get his attention, or make him _do_ anything. He's…I think this is the most relaxed he's been in a long time."

Huh. So this was what happened when Sixer got fully relaxed now? He turned into a massage chair motor?

Crescent saw Star and Pine exchange looks.

"That's good to hear," Sphinx said. "It sounds like he trusts you highly, Maria."

Trust. That wasn't something that he was expecting to hear attributed to his brother. Much less Sixer as he was _now._

"Yeah." Maria looked over at Sixer again, watching the even rise and fall of his chest as he continued purring. "He knows he's safe here. I just…wish I could do more to make sure that this peace is never going to be disrupted." She sighed and shook her head.

"I heard something about you wanting to go see the unicorns today?" Sphinx asked, frowning.

"You're going to what?!" Maple looked at Maria with wide eyes.

At Maple's shriek, Sixer's purring stuttered to an abrupt halt.

 **Change in POV**

What was that yelling about?

Sixer opened an eye and looked around the room. When had Crescent and the others arrived? He normally would have noticed them coming up the hall.

Star had that look on her face that her counterparts did when they found something they'd deem "cute" or "adorable." Why was she looking at _him_ like that?

"Why are you going to talk to them? They're terrible!"

Sixer's attention moved back to Maple at her words.

"That may be, but we're probably going to need more unicorn hair at some point," Maria replied. She raised an eyebrow. "I've got an idea that we could use to _maybe_ protect everyone in town with their own personal barriers. It could help them when the weirdness hits in August."

Sixer shifted slowly into an upright position, tails shifting away from Maria and Maple. They didn't feel as encumbered as they had been when they'd started, which he was glad for.

He supposed that meant they'd have to be brushed frequently enough to keep knots from forming.

…how was that going to work?

They'd figure something out. In the meantime – Maria had mentioned barriers? Were they talking about the unicorns?

"What do you mean?" Maple frowned. "And are you _sure_ that they'll help?"

"I'm pretty sure they will, if they know about the situation and know that I'm not someone who can be scammed so easy." Maria glanced over at Sixer before looking back at the rest. "I just don't know if they decided to move or not, considering that they had you guys go and bother them before Weirdmageddon the first time."

"I doubt that they're going to leave 'the most magical place in the forest' that easily," Sphinx replied. "Or that quickly. Beefed up security, perhaps."

"Will you require backup for this?"

Maria looked over at Sixer at the question, blinking. "Um…I'm not sure. Mostly because I don't know what the unicorns might do if I show up."

"It might be a good idea if you take him with you," Sphinx spoke up. "It will give them some proof as to how dire the situation actually is."

Maria frowned.

Sphinx had a point. Physical proof might make the unicorns more inclined to hand over what was needed.

"As good of an idea as that is…would you be up for something like that, Sixer?" Maria looked over at him.

Sixer tilted his head slightly, considering. Was he?

"I…I think I am."

 **Time Break**

The woods were quiet. Snow was all over the place, muffling everything.

Sixer was glad for the boots he was wearing as they trekked deeper in. The snow was thick and deep, not to mention _wet._

Between the two of them, Maria and Sixer relied on each other to make their way to the "magical" part of the forest, where the unicorns had settled in.

Sixer was half-expecting to need to voice the druidic chant needed to bring the doors up to ground level, but was surprised to find they were already up in the open.

"The unicorns' home is already up in the open?" Maria frowned. "And it's…"

There was a large FOR SALE sign in front of the doors.

Well. That was…odd.

A gnome toddled past, heading for the dead tree that Maria guessed was the bar. "Dum dum de—huh?" He looked up at Maria and Sixer with confusion. "Who are you two?"

Sixer raised an eyebrow at the question. The gnome must not have been one who had seen his counterparts.

Or…did he not look _enough_ like his counterparts to be counted _as_ one?

He doubted that was the case. The vulpine features did not change his facial structure.

"Just a – a couple people passing through," Maria replied. "Kinda. I heard there were unicorns out here – why is their place _for sale?_ "

"Oh, that?" The gnome snorted. "They do that every winter; don't worry about it. They don't like the cold and want ta move somewhere south, but every time they put that sign up, things keep them from movin.' Landslides, far too cold to be out in the open, possible apocalypse where the world completely ends an' none of us can do a thing about it—" The gnome cut himself off abruptly. He chuckled nervously. "I, uh, probably spoke a bit outta turn there. Don't mind me."

The gnome abruptly scampered off into the woods on all fours, leaving Maria and Sixer staring after him blankly.

They exchanged looks.

"Is it possible that the folks in the woods know about…what's coming next summer?" Maria asked.

Sixer tilted his head slightly. "The Multibear saw us, before. I…suppose that it would not be surprising that they would be watching and aware of some of what had happened."

The Multibear also had reacted to Maria's question about the rift in August, he remembered. It was likely the rest of the forest had sensed it as well.

"…considering Gravity Falls in general, I probably shouldn't be surprised," Maria muttered. She frowned. "Well, if the unicorns are still _here,_ then there's nothing wrong with going up and knocking. Probably isn't going to be easy to get more unicorn hair, but…well, they should be aware of what's coming."

She walked up to the gilded, glittering doors, and was about to knock when one of the doors was suddenly opened from within and a blue unicorn with a green mane stepped out.

"And what sort of a solicitor are you supposed to be?" he asked with a nasally accent. "Come here to barter then?"

"In a way." Maria glanced back at Sixer meaningfully. He looked back with a wary, but guarded expression. "Look, I'm going to skip right to the point: I don't know if you know or not, but there's _another_ disaster coming at the end of next summer. While the Shacks may be protected against it, there are people in town who aren't."

The unicorn snorted. "If you think you can walk away with our hair that easily, you clearly aren't pure of—"

"I know that's a scam, buddy." Maria's eyebrows rose. "We're talking about the fate of the world here – do you _want_ the apocalypse to happen again and attack you all unprepared?"

Sixer blinked in surprise. Maria certainly wasn't one to beat around the bush. Considering he had been under her command for five months of this dimension's time, he had learned that by now.

The unicorn blinked. "What?"

"There's a certain triangular beastie out there – a counterpart to the _dead_ one that attacked this dimension – and he's got his sights set on this place." Maria poked the unicorn in the nose, causing him to rear back abruptly. "So either we find a way to protect _everyone_ from getting transformed into something else, or we let chaos reign _again_ while we're trying to rally everyone together to clobber him to a pulp."

The tenseness in Maria's voice caused the unicorn to stare at her with a blank expression. Sixer wondered if the creature was going to attack her for saying such things.

Instead, he started laughing.

"Oh my, I have to say, that is the most amusing lie I've heard in a long time! Do you really think that we're going to have another Weirdmageddon? I highly doubt it."

Apparently, Maria's words were not going to be enough in this situation.

Well, Sixer had come along for backup. Perhaps it was time he did as intended.

"My presence here begs to differ."

Sixer's words caused the unicorn to turn his head.

The unicorn froze. "What? I haven't seen you here before. Who are you supposed to be?"

Sixer held up a hand, six fingers spread wide. "Who do you think I am?"

The unicorn's eyes widened. "What? Impossible, I would have remembered –"

" _Exactly._ " Sixer strode forward. "The Cipher who is coming destroyed my dimension and used my family to anchor himself to new ones. I believe Maria's plan is to end that here, considering that she has already rescued us from him." He glanced over at Maria before looking back at the unicorn. "The situation is more dire than you seem to think it is."

"I – well – I—"

A white unicorn grabbed the other's mane and pulled him back, shutting the door behind him.

Maria blinked in surprise. "Um…okay, I wasn't _completely_ expecting that response." She looked at Sixer. "Nice jumping in there. I don't know if I would have gotten far without that."

Sixer was startled at the comment. "I – um…thank you? I don't know if I can do that again."

Pushing forward like that felt more mentally tiring than it had been to ask Maria if it was all right to call her by her name. He needed time to…not think as much, before he pushed things forward that quickly again.

"It's okay, Sixer." Maria reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure something out."

The touch was a comforting one. Maria was willing to take the reins again and nudge him if need be.

At that point, the door opened again, and a white unicorn with a rainbow mane stepped out.

"Did I hear right? You say that fashion disaster is coming again, and you want to protect the entire town?" asked the unicorn.

That voice brought back a number of annoying memories, from back when he was far, far younger. Sixer fought to keep a straight face as he remembered just how annoying this unicorn in particular had been.

Maria nodded. "I was thinking making bracelets out of hair for everyone to wear, rather than making a barrier around the whole town. Protecting the people is more important than protecting their possessions right now."

Sixer remained behind Maria while she spoke, watching the interaction. He wasn't sure if Maria was going to need him shortly or not, but he was prepared.

Celesteabelleabethabelle visibly hesitated, but then her expression became a little more determined.

"Get everyone together. If that – that thing is coming back, I don't want to have to deal with it messing up everything all over again." She glared at something behind her. "I think it's time we make a new fashion statement." She looked back at Maria and Sixer. "Expect a package tomorrow morning at the earliest. Good day."

And with that, she slammed the door in their faces. Again.

Maria frowned. "Hmph. Talk about bad manners." She looked at Sixer. "Well, I guess that's all we can do for now. We might as well head back."

Sixer had a wide-eyed look on his face. "Was it…that easy?"

"We'll have to wait and see if it was, but…I hope so."


	24. Preparations

**I'm posting a few days late because of the thing that happened here involving profiles over the weekend. But never fear! I'm not going to let this mess up my update schedule! I will post again this Friday!**

 **Chapter 24 – Preparations**

The next morning, Sixer watched from inside Alex's kitchen as a box stuffed with a rainbow-like material was carried inside Stanford's home by Stanford. Vash watched from the doorway, looking surprised.

At least the unicorns had kept their word.

"What is it?" Star walked over, looking curious.

"They just got the unicorn hair," Sixer replied. "They kept their word."

"The unicorns?" Star repeated. Her eyes widened. "They _gave_ us hair? I thought they didn't want to give it away to anyone!"

"I suppose they…changed their minds." Sixer frowned a little.

Spending that little amount of time with the unicorns had caused some things to come back, and double-checking the journals he'd recovered for Christmas had confirmed it – they were rather stubborn creatures that didn't want to give up their hair unless someone was pure of heart.

Or, in the case of the notes Star added later, they stuck to the scam because they didn't want to be helpful and give away their glorious manes unless forced. In Star's case, it had been a fistfight.

He wondered if there had been different events between his counterpart's families.

Sixer looked outside again and watched as Pines started stepping out of the Shacks – the younger twins, specifically. Immediately they set to playing around in the snow, throwing snowball and building snowmen with wide grins on their faces.

He drummed his fingers against the windowsill in thought. He should find something to do today if Maria wasn't going to try and get his attention today. But what? He had his research – including the pages that he would rather not consider, but he was thinking about moving the information over into other journals while leaving everything he didn't need in the old ones. His explicit actions while under Cipher's control, for example.

But he didn't _have_ any new journals to work with. Not currently, at least.

His brow furrowed. What could he—

Maria stepped out of the Shack and off the porch, heading towards the driveway.

She was going somewhere?

"I'm going out," Sixer said to the others. He stepped out of the house before anyone could respond. "Maria?"

Maria stopped mid-step and looked over.

"Where are you heading out to now?" Sixer stepped off the porch and walked over.

"Checking on Fiddleford." Maria motioned to the driveway that led out of the woods and into town. "Stanford got the unicorn hair and he wanted to know how far along Fiddleford was in making small containers for the mercury that we can use for those barrier bracelets."

"Oh." Sixer blinked. "And you…thought you could handle it alone?"

She probably could. But Sixer wasn't sure what he could do to pass the time.

"Well, it's just going and talking to him as far as I'm aware." Maria paused. "Unless…do you have anything else to do today?"

Sixer shook his head.

"Do you think you'd be all right in accompanying me through town to Fiddleford's house?"

Well, he didn't have anything else to do. All it would be was walking through town and reaching Fiddleford's home and conversing with him.

Sixer nodded. "I think I'll be all right with that."

"All right. But if you feel like coming back here, let me know, okay?"

Sixer nodded.

The two of them trekked across the tamped-down snow from cars, quickly leaving the driveway and onto the main road, where they eventually reached town.

It was midmorning, so Sixer _might_ have thought that not very many people would be out and about. And yet, most of the people in town were walking briskly from one place to the next, bundled in winter clothing that Sixer and Maria had no need for.

They got quite a few looks from the people who passed, but no one stopped to talk to them. Sixer saw the looks pointed at him mixed somewhere between sympathy and curiosity.

He wondered what _would_ happen if they stopped to talk.

"Whoa, Maria, what's with this heat bubble you've got?" Wendy came to a stop on the sidewalk and looked at them in amazement. "It's like I suddenly walked into summer over here."

"Huh? Oh, that." Maria rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "It's a way for me to keep my internal parts from getting frostbite and freezing up, I suppose. With how I've got fire magic, the heat release just…developed naturally. It's a part of an inherent skillset, not a conscious thing."

Sixer remembered Maria telling him about that as the weather had grown colder in December. It was likely the only reason he hadn't gone to get a coat himself before stepping outside.

He hadn't realized in the beginning that his link to fire magic could be used for so many different things.

"Huh. That's awesome." Wendy nodded. "And you're actually out and about!"

Sixer blinked in surprise when Wendy suddenly looked in his direction. "Ah…thank you?"

He hadn't expected this sort of attention.

Was this why Maria had given the out to head back to the Shack? In case he became overwhelmed?

Wendy smirked. "Hey, no need ta be so nervous. One step at a time, right? So where are you guys headed?"

"We're heading up to Fiddleford's place," Maria replied. "Stanford's busy, but he wanted someone to check in on a few projects."

"Really? Well, I'd suggest you be careful – the Northwests are at it again."

The Northwests?

Maria frowned at Wendy's words, but when she pointed up the hill towards the mansion, she and Sixer saw what the redhead meant.

"What's with all the vehicles up there?" Maria asked.

"They've been trying to find ways to get the mansion back since mid-November," Wendy explained. "They usually drive up to the mansion with new excuses they _think_ they can use to kick him out and take the place back."

"You'd think that Preston would at least _consider_ this as the dimension telling him that asking to _join_ Cipher was a bad idea."

Wait—

Sixer made a snorting noise in surprise. "He _what?_ "

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Apparently people in town heard him try to swear loyalty and try to become one of Cipher's Four Horsemen or something."

Sixer spluttered. Preston had tried _what?_

What did he think that meant?!

"…okay, yeah, sounds like he's gone a bit bonkers," Maria said flatly.

"He doesn't know what it _means_ to carry a burden such as that," Sixer muttered. His tails twitched back and forth, agitated. He shuddered and sucked in a breath, hissing a little as he visibly attempted to regain his composure.

Preston didn't understand. And he never would – he wasn't someone that Cipher was interested in. Normally.

Maria looked at him with a startled sort of expression, but she didn't comment on it.

Wendy apparently hadn't been expecting Sixer's reaction, either. "O…kay, yeah, he probably didn't. Probably why Cipher rearranged his face instead, but that apparently wasn't enough to make it stick for him. So Mr. Northwest has been pestering McGucket ever since."

"But nothing's come of it?" Maria looked up at the mansion again. It looked like people were running for the black vehicles parked in front of the gates.

"Not so far." Wendy shrugged. "I've heard Pacifica's given up on trying to get her parents to stop, though. Sounds like they've nearly gone over the edge."

"Is she doing okay?" Maria frowned while Sixer blinked, confused.

Pacifica…where had he heard that name before—

Ah, the _llama_ symbol, right.

"As far as I know, yeah. She's working over at Greasy's Diner whenever they're out doing this – I heard her say something about saving up last time I was there."

"Ah." Maria nodded. "Well, I hope she's okay. With parents that desperate to get their old lifestyle back…I don't know if I want to be near people quite that desperate."

"Yeah. You and me both." Wendy looked back up at the mansion. The crowd of cars that had been up there had disappeared in a cloud of dust down the driveway. "Well, looks like they're done with their nonsense for now. Hey, you mind if I come up with you? I'm kinda curious about what McGucket's been doing up there for the last couple of months."

"I don't see why not." Maria shrugged.

Sixer didn't have any objections, so he didn't add his voice to the conversation. He got the feeling that Wendy might expect him to speak more, but he didn't really have anything to say.

He was still troubled over the idea that Preston would put himself in Cipher's path and _ask_ to become one of his Four Horsemen.

The three of them started moving again, walking up the street while Sixer's thoughts wandered.

Wendy had mentioned Pacifica and her current state. He was aware of the current state of his family, Wendy, and Soos, who ran the Shack while Stanley took the reins occasion.

But what about…

They crossed a street and moved past Manly Dan as he came out of the diner – he grunted a greeting and eyed Sixer with a raised eyebrow – before Sixer spoke up.

"H-how are the other members of the Zodiac?"

The question was sudden enough that it almost made Maria turn around completely.

"What, you mean that wheel thing that didn't quite work when Cipher came around?" Wendy looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

Sixer was a little nervous at the question, but he nodded.

"Well, Robbie's hanging with Tambry today – I heard something about a movie marathon that Lee and the others weren't invited to. I'm gonna be going to find them later and see if we can get a town-wide snowball fight going." Wendy grinned. "It's too quiet; we need some action up here to keep everyone on their toes."

Maria nodded in agreement.

"I haven't heard anything from Gideon recently, which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, the kid was a lot of trouble 2 years ago, and his attempts at being a 'normal' kid aren't going to well from what I heard." Wendy frowned. "I think he's still got his hands in a criminal underground somewhere, but I haven't seen any proof of it yet. Yet. I mean, he's spending time with people he met in prison and is using them as _bodyguards."_

Sixer didn't _quite_ recognize that name. Gideon? It sounded familiar.

…was that the pentagram-star symbol? It was likely.

"Well, I hope he's starting to learn how 'normal' kids do things," Maria said. "Hopefully his reputation from his past acts won't make it terrible for him."

Wendy snorted. "Yeah, hopefully. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen, though – I've seen him come by the Mystery Shack sometimes. I think he's gotten it into his head that he wants to help a certain group adjust to normal life again."

"Well, I haven't heard him say anything about that." Maria frowned.

"Likely because Soos and Stanley keep him from going past the gift shop and into the house." Wendy looked back at Sixer. "He might be interested in you, but I dunno. He had a stalker-crush on Mabel in the past."

Sixer made a soft "ah" sound. He was curious about this. It felt like some pieces were falling into place. "Interested in me how?"

"You're the Author of the Journals – one of the authors, anyway – and he hasn't exactly gotten the chance to talk to you face to face," Wendy explained. "Not since the others learned about the stalking problem and started eyeing Gideon as a potential threat. I mean, they're civil, I guess is the word? But they're not gonna share their work with him."

"Especially not after he tried to use that knowledge to take the Shack from Stan and thought the portal was a weapon he could take over the world with," Maria commented with a nod.

…oh.

Sixer made a pained noise that caused Maria to look back at him.

"I…I suppose it _could_ be seen as a weapon," he said uneasily. "It's…it's not like portals to other dimensions are a common occurrence."

"But it doesn't exist in this dimension," Maria said evenly. "Not anymore."

Sixer blinked, then gave a shaky nod in reply. "Y-yeah."

His counterparts had destroyed their portals, and _his_ was in his dimension.

Whatever might remain of it, at least.

The trio soon made their way up to the mansion's open doors, where they were quickly bombarded with the sound of arguing between two Southern accented-voices.

"But I just want ta help! See, this spell here could—"

"I don't need no spells when I know what will and won't work with this metal, Gideon! I know what I'm doin', an' as much as I appreciate yer attempts ta help I'm startin' ta get at my wit's end here! If ya do _one more thing_ ta one of my babies, I'm sendin' a car-smashin' bot ta yer pop's car lot! Now git!"

Maria raised an eyebrow at the yelling while Sixer's ears tilted forward a little. He recognized one of the voices, but not the younger – that must be Gideon.

His thoughts were proven truth when a young, white-haired, blue-eyed boy who wasn't a teenager yet came stomping out of the mansion. He was wearing a powder-blue coat and khaki pants, and was followed closely by a red-haired, muscular man with white eyes.

"I don't get it, Ghost Eyes! I offer my help to the people in this town because I don't want him comin' back, an' no one's takin' me up on it!" Gideon looked down at his hands, then clenched his fists and threw them down at his sides. "I have to do _somethin'_ that'll show 'em I don't mean ta cause trouble this time around."

"Maybe it's because you're just a kid to everybody else?" Ghost Eyes suggested. The two started to walk past Maria, Sixer, and Wendy, then paused. "Uh…boss?"

"What?" Gideon turned to look at Ghost Eyes and paused when he saw the others. Immediately, he smiled widely in a way that reminded Sixer of when his brother was preparing to scam someone, but the kid was clearly out of practice. "Wh-why, hello! I, uh, wasn't expectin' ta see you folks out here. Maria, right? I'm Gideon." He started to put a hand out to shake, then paused and pulled it back before Maria could even consider accepting the gesture.

"I've heard," Maria replied.

Gideon's face fell a little. "O-oh."

"I'm gonna go in and see what McGucket's up to," Wendy said casually. "Sounds like he's really getting into his work in there." She strode up to the mansion's open doors with a strange, casual confidence.

Sixer watched her go for a moment, then turned his attention back to Maria and Gideon. He could see Ghost Eyes watching him, but he wasn't as interested in the man as he was in the child.

Gideon fidgeted as Wendy walked off. "U-um. So, I've been wondering, if – if I can help with anything. I mean, I've read the Author's – er, Dr. Pines' work, so—"

"From what I heard, you only read a bit of it." Maria rested one hand on her hip. "Just the second one, right? With all the spells and stuff?"

"Er – y-yeah."

"That's not all of his work, and you're still pretty young. Considering what those spells were capable of, I'd be pretty concerned about letting a child experiment with cursed termites or mind control spells."

Sixer shot Maria a surprised look. Judging from that reference…Gideon had gotten his hands on the second journal? And _used_ the spells? At his age?

Gideon frowned. "A-are you sayin' I'm too _young_ to help?"

Maria made a so-so motion. "More like too young to mess with things that could be considered detrimental to your health. I mean, I'm _pretty_ sure your hair wasn't white when you were a baby."

Gideon reached up with one hand and touched his hair, blinking in surprise.

"Magic always comes at a price of some kind, whether it drains your energy, changes your personality and appearance, or does something a lot more detrimental. So I wouldn't suggest going that route if you want to help, considering that you're so young yet." Maria slipped her hands into her pockets.

...there is always a price. Right. That would explain Gideon's hair.

…did Cipher pay a price when he changed Sixer and his family? Or was that price still coming?

"…I see." Gideon had a strange sort of look on his face. "And what about – what about what's going on between you two?" He looked between Maria and Sixer. Sixer blinked when Gideon's attention was turned to him. "Are there going to be any after-effects to that?"

That question caught Maria by surprise. "W-well, there's always the hope that there _won't_ be, but I don't doubt that this will affect the both of us somehow." She glanced at Sixer. "It is better than if I had just cut him loose and left him as he was, though. What Cipher did would have made that decision not end well."

Sixer met Maria's gaze. After a moment, his expression became saddened and he moved his gaze down the driveway and away from the mansion.

Another reminder that he was still bound. He may have his sense of self returning, but…regardless of what Maria did or said, he _still_ had to keep his ears open for a possible command.

That was just how things were.

"Is this true?" Ghost Eyes frowned at Sixer. "She couldn't've just…let you and your family go?"

Sixer's ears flicked at the question, and he looked at Ghost Eyes with an uncertain expression before glancing at Maria. "Is it…"

Maria reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Tell only as much as you feel you need to. I doubt they need the full story, though."

She was giving him leeway on how much should be said. He should word this carefully.

Sixer nodded, then looked at Ghost Eyes. "Unfortunately, it is necessary. We've been…changed, to the point that we would end up dying otherwise. When…"

He had to say something as proof of that. But he didn't need to say everything.

"…when Maria severed the connection, I could _feel_ my body giving out until she picked it up."

Gideon's eyes widened while Ghost Eyes winced.

"Oh, man. I can't imagine what that would feel like," Ghost Eyes commented. "So, what are you gonna do about it? Is there anything that _can_ be done?"

"We haven't found a solution yet," Maria replied. "I…A friend of mine who I _thought_ could help said he hadn't come across anything like this before, and that his abilities wouldn't do us any good."

Which – ah, right. Jewels, one of the Pokémon creatures. He hadn't been able to return Sixer's willpower to where it was supposed to be.

"And I don't really know where else I can look quite yet," Maria added. "Most of my focus the last few months has been helping Sixer in _other_ ways."

Sixer's ear flicked. He thought back, remembering how focused she had been on getting him to be more independent, more…more himself.

"Well, so long as you get there eventually, right?" Ghost Eyes clapped a hand on Sixer's shoulder, causing him to stiffen in surprise. "You'll get there. I believe that."

Sixer watched Ghost Eyes in a confused fashion as he pulled his hand back. "Ah…thank you?"

Ghost Eyes just grinned back. He looked down at Gideon. "Hey, little man, how about we leave them to do their thing? Maybe we can find something to do that won't get people more mad?"

"Y-yeah. Maybe." Gideon frowned, then turned and walked away, Ghost Eyes right behind him. Sixer could hear him muttering things under his breath as he went – likely planning on he could possibly do something to help, despite what had just happened.

Maria looked at Sixer. "What do you think of him?"

Sixer took a moment to gather his thoughts before he responded. "He's trying to prove himself useful, despite his past mistakes. I can't tell whether or not his intentions are misguided."

"We just have to wait and see what comes of it, then." Maria sighed and shook her head. "Hopefully he doesn't get himself into trouble as a result."

Sixer nodded absently, but he didn't offer a verbal response.

"Let's go see what Fidds is up to and make sure he knows what Stanford asked us to tell him. I bet Wendy's told him about the unicorn hair already."

"R-right."

Sixer followed Maria towards the mansion's wide-open doors. His thoughts wandered as he did.

Gideon wanted to help and prove himself. If he had been in contact with Cipher…had Cipher seen something of a gullible Ford in him?

It was certainly likely.

"Howdy, Maria!"

Fiddleford's voice came from somewhere above their heads. Sixer looked up…

…and up.

"Holy scrap, Fiddleford, are you making a Shacktron 2.0?" Maria asked in amazement.

Shacktron? It…certainly fit the base design of the metal contraption above their heads, but it didn't look like it was _just_ a Mystery Shack on legs. Sixer wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

Fiddleford cackled. He was hanging from a metal bar of scaffolding by his knees, probably in the middle of giving his current work a closer inspection before doing anything else. "Somethin' like that!" He swung down the scaffolding like an agile monkey, landing quietly on his bare feet.

Sixer tilted his head slightly, a little curious. How could someone of Fiddleford's age and physical fitness manage a landing like that? He rethought that a moment later – _he_ appeared to be getting on in years and could do things that he had been capable of in his youth. Why not have Fiddleford be affected by the ambient magic of Gravity Falls to be capable of similar feats?

"Wendy said you two wanted to check in an' see how I was doin'?" Fiddleford walked over.

Wendy waved from where she was leaning against a part of the scaffolding.

Maria nodded. "We got the unicorn hair yesterday. Stanford's working on the equations now to figure out how to translate the barrier spell into a bracelet that people can wear instead."

Fiddleford's eyes widened. "Really? Ya managed it? That's excellent!" A grin nearly split his face. "That's got ta be the best news I've heard today! I'll head over an' help him with the calculations when I'm done with this part o' my mecha!" He cackled.

They weren't _just_ here because of that.

"He wanted to know if you had anything that could contain mercury safely, as well," Sixer spoke up. He glanced at Maria, who nodded while Fiddleford looked surprised.

"Yeah." Maria looked over at Fiddleford. "The plan is to make beads that will have the other components of the barrier spell, and mercury is one of them. Since it's not good for it to be near humans…."

"Oh, that? Sure, that won't be a problem! I'm sure I've got an alloy 'round here somewhere that'll cover that! I'll do some diggin' an' find it an' get to work on those later." Fiddleford's grin went a little manic. "Righ' now, I'm on a bit of a roll – maybe you folks can help!"

"With what?" Maria raised an eyebrow.

"He wants to know as much as he can about that demon's minions," Wendy called over. "Sixer, you were around them a lot, right? Think you'd be up to help with that?"

Sixer blinked at the question. He glanced over at Maria, but she just raised an eyebrow at him.

"She asked you, not me," Maria pointed out.

Sixer hesitated, looking between Maria and Fiddleford while Fiddleford watched with a gradually more concerned expression.

Was he prepared to go back into his memories and explain about what the main Henchmaniacs were capable of?

After a moment, he settled and nodded. "I am…up for assisting, yes."

Fiddleford moved forward and patted Sixer on the arm. "Take yer time. I'm jus' lookin' fer basics on 'em. Powers, what ta look out fer, that kinda thing."

The act of kindness helped.

Sixer tilted his head slightly, gaze going up to the large, metallic mecha that Fiddleford was in the process of building. Considering that he was building this…

"You – you've done this once before, so I assume you're aware of his generals," Sixer said.

"Is that what he calls 'em?" Fiddleford scratched his head.

"I guess there's more to them than just being 'Henchmaniacs'," Maria commented.

Sixer nodded. After all the deals that had been made across the dimensions that Cipher had taken, his main crew had become something more than just his inner circle of party-goers.

He launched into as elaborate explanation as he possibly could of the main Henchmaniacs – weaknesses, strengths, and anything else he could think of.

Teeth could eat just about anything, but that didn't mean he had a stomach. The creature had an unending hunger that was only just barely under control. _Theoretically,_ breaking his jaw would immobilize him momentarily.

8-Ball was mostly kept around because of his ability to predict and change probability a little. It wasn't good enough to completely change fate, but he could change things to work in his and Cipher's favor more frequently.

Amorphous Shape was quiet, but crafty. They were in charge of creating mazes and puzzle traps that turned people around and sent them down into maddening spirals that eventually turned them into crazed zombies that – even when they managed to get out of the maze – thought they were still trapped in it, and that the world around them was a hallucination.

After a moment's hesitation in the middle of explaining the Henchmaniac generals, Sixer skipped over Pyronica. Even now, even after having been away from her for so long, he couldn't bare to think of her without a chill running down his spine and his brain going fuzzy. So he didn't think about her.

Unfortunately….

"What about that fire cyclops?" Fiddleford asked. "Pyro-somethin'?"

As _soon_ as Fiddleford asked, Sixer went ramrod straight as a visible shudder ran from his ears down to his tails. He could feel his mind starting to shut down.

"Journal shared her weaknesses with me," Maria spoke up seriously. "Alcor and I have dibs on her head; if anyone's going to take care of her, it's going to be us."

The grim tone of Maria's voice – as well as the contents of the message – caused Sixer's mind to clear abruptly. He looked over at her sharply.

Fiddleford looked surprise. "Really? Why do you two want ta—"

"She's done something that she has to answer for." Maria looked over at Sixer. "And I intend to make sure that she does."

Sixer stared in wide-eyed surprise.

Maria was willing to take on Pyronica _herself?_ Was she _insane?_

"Ya sure?" Fiddleford frowned. "She's, ah, pretty big, ya know."

"I've fought bigger." Maria was grimly determined.

As much as Sixer didn't doubt that truth…

He shuddered a little at the memory of seeing the entire west coast of America go up in flames at once.

Maria looked over at Sixer. "If we're out in the middle of Weirdmageddon and she finds us, I want you to run back to the Shacks as fast as you can. The unicorn barriers should keep her out just as much as they keep out Cipher's weirdness. I know what she did, and I don't want to give her the opportunity to do it again."

Sixer's eyes widened while Wendy and Fiddleford looked confused at where the conversation had so abruptly turned.

That wasn't a suggestion.

That was an _order._

Sixer stumbled over his words. "A-are you certain? Your abilities—"

"May be the same, but that doesn't mean I can't stall her. I'm planning on getting some materials that might be able to help, and I know that Alcor is going to want to get a few hits in, too. If I can keep her distracted long enough that you can get away from her, then I'll do something that will keep her from following me and follow suit. I've been thinking about my strategy since Christmas, Sixer. I know what I'm doing."

"But – what if you _can't_?"

If there was a possibility that Maria might not be able to fight her, much less stall her….

Sixer's chest ached at the thought.

"Then you'll be back at the Shack where it's safe. And that's all that will matter at that point." Maria sounded grimly calm.

…she was expecting it as a chance. She didn't think it would be wise to have him nearby when she confronted her so that someone else could take over in her stead.

She didn't want him to be put in danger.

As much as the thought was appreciated…

"Why?"

"Because I'd rather die than let him take any of you back."

The conviction in her voice caught him almost by surprise.

But then he remembered that she had been through something similar. The Dark Arms – the same creatures that had made a deal with Cipher – had used her as a means to their own end, a long, long time ago.

She didn't want that happening to him again, even if…

Sixer didn't need to think over this longer than he already had. Already, he knew the order had slipped into place at the back of his mind, ready to get set off the moment he and Maria ran into Pyronica.

If they ever did.

He nodded slowly to Maria. "Okay."


	25. April

**Chapter 25 – April**

Sixer watched as the snow melted over the next few months, leaving the deep green of the pine trees to bleed down into the earth as the grass started to show itself again. He got the feeling that Pine was helping the plants grow quickly, but he decided against asking. What Pine did was his business, and Mizar was likely encouraging him to see if he could make spring come sooner.

That didn't make the ground any less muddy, unfortunately.

Sixer looked down at the mud from where he stood on the porch. If he was going to see what Maria wanted with being out today – and talk to her about what was troubling him – he was going to have to get his boots dirty.

He did _not_ think it wise to let that anywhere near his tails, however.

Maria shook the mud off her boots. "Man; I hope the berry trees didn't get too overwatered. I may have to replant and dig a trench to make sure that they don't get oversaturated or something."

Sixer stepped onto the squelching ground, making a face as his boots sank a little into the mud. He raised his tails up to about knee-height, rather than letting the tips settle around his ankles – no way was he going to let them go that low.

"Hey, Sixer."

Sixer looked up while Maria walked over, taking big strides off the clearing. It was a wonder she didn't lose her balance.

Maria stopped in front of him. "I'm heading out to check on the berry trees; I think they might be getting ready to drop some berries soon." She frowned when she saw the look on his face. "Is…something wrong, Sixer?"

"I just…" Sixer paused. This question had been bothering him for some time. He needed to word this _right._ "What you said before. About…how many times have you been taken?"

Maria looked a little surprised. "Taken?"

"No longer in control of your actions."

Maria's expression shifted slightly. She motioned for him to follow her. "How long have you been curious about that?"

Sixer shrugged as he fell into step behind her. His tails were high enough that they weren't going to get dirtied by any mud that might be kicked up as they walked. "I'm not sure. It's been something I have been thinking about a little since you said that the Dark Arms had done the same to you."

He probably would have asked her back in December, but…he hadn't felt like it was okay to pry, back then.

"This has been bothering you since late last _year?_ " Maria looked at him in surprise. "And you didn't think to ask before now? Why?"

Sixer ducked his head a little. "I…wasn't sure if it was a question I was able to ask."

Maria's expression softened. "While it isn't a part of my past that I like to talk about very often, I would have let you know if I didn't want to talk about it if you had asked."

"Oh."

He…supposed, that made sense.

His ears started to droop. Did that mean that Maria wasn't going to tell him?

"But that doesn't mean I'm not going to answer your question. You of all people deserve to know, considering what you're going through."

Sixer's ears perked up from their slowly-drooping position at Maria's words. The surprise on his face caused Maria to smile a little.

"I think you should know first that the Dark Arms weren't the first people to make the attempt and succeed," Maria began as they walked through the trees. The area smelled of rain and wet, growing things. It felt like an entirely new smell to Sixer, but…at the same time, it stirred some old memories of Gravity Falls in him. "The first incident happened right after I left the Pokémon world, in the next dimension that I arrived in."

"S-so soon?" Sixer was surprised.

Maria nodded. "I was seventeen then; I was sixteen when I met you at the Guild."

To be so young, and _already_ traveling across dimensions with the weight of saving worlds on her shoulders…it sounded almost impossible.

"The world is one that I'm familiar with because of video games – my brother used to play a lot of them and had picked up this one at some point. Basically, this dimension had a lot of problems with robot uprisings because of a man named Albert Wily, a genius roboticist who was constantly at odds with a former colleague, Thomas Light. I arrived during a rebellion in the later years, when Wily was starting to lose his mind. I learned before I got nabbed that it was _probably_ due to him using a certain kind of teleportation that wasn't safe for human use."

Maria paused for a moment, letting Sixer absorb that.

A civil war of sorts between two rivals in robotics.

A part of him wondered if Fiddleford was ever going to end up in a similar situation.

"When I got there, I ended up getting caught by surprise by one of his robots – a humanoid one who threw buzzsaws at people. He…got me pretty badly. I was able to melt him down to slag, but the cost was high – I almost died from the combined energy exhaustion and the blood loss. I'm lucky that MegaMan – one of Light's earliest creations and his surrogate son – was in the area. He brought me back to Light's lab and…well, they saved my life, but at a cost."

So _that's_ how it had happened.

Sixer made a soft "Ah." When Maria looked at him curiously, he elaborated, "That's why you're no longer human."

Maria nodded. "Yeah. As much as that means I'm no longer physically _weak_ like one, though, that doesn't mean that I'm strong against everything. I ended up gaining weaknesses to other things in the process. Like the idea of reprogramming a robot to suit your needs." Her expression went grim. "Wily didn't know I'd been human, so when he attempted to…turn me to his side in the only way he knew how, it…it wasn't pleasant."

Sixer didn't have to imagine what Maria was alluding to. There was likely a lot of pain involved.

"I'm lucky that a few friends stepped in to help Light reverse the problem," Maria continued. "And that I apparently had built-in defenses. I can be forced to make a portal into another dimension when in that state, but it only creates a window like when I attempted to go back into your timeline. A couple allies saw the window and made a one-way portal to Light's dimension and helped him reverse the program's effects. Most of them, anyway – I've got pieces of it left up in here, but they redid it into a defense mechanism."

Maria tapped the side of her head while Sixer's eyes widened. They had managed to turn her curse into something else?

…could the same be done with his?

But that didn't explain—

"If it's a defense mechanism…then how were the Dark Arms able to do what they did?" Sixer asked.

"Well, it turns out that the Defense Protocol only jumps to action when the invading program in question wants to wipe out something that makes me me, or tries to get me to do something that I wouldn't do under normal circumstances."

They reached the clearing with the berry trees as Maria spoke, their boots now caked in mud. The trees were small compared to the pine trees around them, but the leaves were fully green.

"So the Dark Arms found ways to circumvent that…until they tried to make me kill my brother," Maria continued.

Sixer sucked in a breath. "Your family was involved in this as well?"

This was really the first time that she had mentioned family being involved in her World Jumping endeavors directly. She mentioned that a brother had played games _similar_ to a world she accessed, but…this was different.

"Just my older brother, but…yeah. He was on one of the worlds that the Dark Arms fused with other ones. He'd been doing some work there at the time and…well, the Dark Arms didn't think they needed another World Jumper when they found out he could do the same thing that I could." Maria frowned. "I've always been against being the one to take another person's life, especially since I started World Jumping when I was 16, so that on top of the thought of killing my own brother helped me snap out of their control and gain an immunity to their tech in the process. If they try to pull the Mind Tech thing on me again, they're going to get booted out of my head in a matter of seconds. They tried to take me back enough times for me to know that."

Tried – oh no.

"…which is why they were interested in what had been done to us," Sixer said slowly. "Because they wanted to know what had been done so that they could find a way around those defenses."

Maria's expression sobered. "Yeah. They'd be the first ones to try something like that, but not the second to try and take me back. Wily and I crossed paths a few months after I'd left his dimension. He tried to take me back and reactivate the Protocol's original programming, but a friend of mine intervened. The Protocol had this weird quirk back then of latching onto people I trusted and having _them_ take control for a bit, if they knew the activation codes. It felt a bit restricting, but it never got as bad as how it was with Wily."

…what? That was possible?

Sixer stared at Maria. "You trusted people enough to put yourself in that position?"

"If I had to. You can ask Stanford about it – I actually let _him_ activate it when I first met him in order to prove I was trustworthy. That was before I ran into the Dark Arms, and before he got home. After the World Collision, though, the Protocol stopped doing that. I guess it's just defensive now, after what happened."

Stanford knew about this?

That was…

…but who else?

Sixer frowned. "How many others?"

"For the Protocol, you mean?"

Sixer nodded.

"Well, Captain America was the first – he was there when Wily tried to take me back." Maria started ticking the names off on her fingers. "Then there was…Optimus Prime, when he was suffering from momentary memory loss – he's a Cybertronian, one of these big mechanical aliens who can transform into vehicles. Same for Wildfire, who is a close friend and may as well be family…and then my cousin Joshua and Stanford. Those are the only people who have really made use of it, and out of all of them Joshua's done it a couple of times." Maria made a face. "He had a thing about trying to keep me from being reckless. I didn't exactly like how he went about it."

"Oh."

That was the second family relative she'd mentioned. First a brother, now a cousin…and this cousin had no qualms about taking the reins.

He wasn't sure he wanted to meet this Joshua.

"Got any other questions?" Maria pulled a couple large, cylindrical wicker baskets out from under her jacket, then marched over to one of the closest berry trees and looked up. "I can answer them as I check the trees to see if there are any berries already."

Sixer hesitated, then followed after her, being a bit more careful in how he walked across the muddy earth.

The _other_ thing he was troubled by – he should tell her that now too.

"…Cipher has more Henchmaniacs than just the ones Fiddleford asked about."

Maria paused, one hand on the trunk. "Do you mean, he's _always_ had more, or something else?" She glanced back at Sixer.

Sixer's tails fidgeted. "He made deals with others. Their loyalty for whatever power they chose."

Every single person who entered the Fearamid with that in mind came out…different. Chaotic, but loyal. Those who didn't go in for a deal were either forced into one or…given a different, but still terrible fate.

"He willingly picked up more minions?" Maria's eyebrows rose. "I'd have thought that he was content with the numbers he had already."

Sixer shrugged helplessly. "Like I knew what was going through his head. He could have been attempting to gain more minions for his invasion into later dimensions for all I know."

"That certainly does seem likely." Maria leaned against the tree behind her, frowning. "But looking for willing people – I'd think they were more desperate. Joining with Cipher was probably their only way to survive the apocalypse, and after being changed…I bet they didn't even think if their families anymore, much less who they were."

"That was the case, from what I remember," Sixer replied. "He…every deal made to give someone those abilities turned them into something that was no longer human. I don't know if there is anyone left alive who is still who they used to be."

It was a grim thought, considering the state his dimension was more than likely is.

Maria nodded, frowning. "Yeah. Either they're changed, killed, or stuck in Cipher's throne room like trophies." That was a grim thought, but a truthful one. "What about the dimensions that were added on after yours?"

"I never saw them after the initial assault. He…he kept us out of the way, when he…." Sixer trailed off, his voice becoming quiet. He was always kept up in the throne room, after the initial barging in. Kept as a sign of what happened to people who tried to turn against Cipher.

…among other things.

Maria's gaze hardened. "When Cipher's been taken care of, I'm checking on those worlds. Weirdmageddon was reversed without doing any permanent damage to Gravity Falls here; maybe the same is true for the dimensions you were forced to invade."

"Do you truly think that there's a chance what has been done could be undone?"

Maria blinked at Sixer's question, then nodded. "Yeah. I do. It might not be the same when all is said and done, if it can return to how it was before, it will." She smiled a little, but there was a fire in her eyes. "We just have to take care of Cipher first. Then everything else should be okay."

Sixer blinked, eyes widening in awe. She was this focused that everything was going to be all right? But how? "Is it because of your experience with the Continuum Shift that you know this?"

"Partially. I also had the chance to watch what happened to Stanford's Gravity Falls, but with his events portrayed as a cartoon. As soon as Cipher was defeated in Stanley's mind – and Stanford wiped Stanley's mind with the memory gun – Cipher's minions were pulled back through the rift, which sealed shut behind them. And then the world just…went back to normal." Maria shrugged. "I'd say there's a pretty good chance it could happen for your dimension and the others affected, too."

Sixer considered that, then nodded. He could see how that might make sense.

Then there was a chance his world could return to normal – at least in form. He wasn't so sure about the people who might have made deals with Cipher.

"Come on. I think at least some of these trees might be ripe, so let's have a look-see and get some of them taken back to the Shack." Maria turned and started to climb the berry tree that she had been leaning against.

"Didn't you say you would leave half for the members of the forest to take?" Sixer asked as he approached the base of the tree.

"Yup! And that's still the plan! I just need to get a portion of the berries from each of the trees and we'll leave the rest for the other creatures to take until the next time the berries are ripe. Or until I run low in my supply, one of the two."

Collecting the berries didn't take more than a few hours. By the time the two were done, there were muddy footprints all over the tree trunks and more than a few baskets filled with different kinds of berries.

Maria made it a point to leave the rest of the berries on the branches so that wild creatures could reach them, rather than plucking them off and leaving them on the ground.

As she and Sixer left the clearing, she saw the Multibear waddle in, rubbing the sleep out of the eyes of one if its bear heads.

"Go for that one!" Maria pointed at one of the trees with purple-blue berries. "Chesto Berries are a natural wake-up call!"

Multibear snorted and looked over in surprise at her voice, then looked over at the tree. He grunted and started towards it.

Maria grinned, then looked at Sixer, who was watching the Multibear with an expression of curiosity.

"I wonder how many heads his parents had," Sixer said.


	26. Aging Up?

**Chapter 26 – Aging Up?**

Sixer wasn't sure what all the hustle and bustle was about. Mabel, Maple, Mizar, and Mabelcorn all met frequently as soon as school was let out, excitedly whispering to each other about something.

He never got into hearing range, nor was he able to ask _what_ they were whispering out. Mostly because they broke and changed the subject as soon as he got near. Or, they would offer to brush his tails again and leave him sprawled across the couch for a few hours with immaculate tails.

It was better than blacking out, but they were clearly hiding _something_ from him.

And he was starting to get curious about it.

"Do you know what Maple and the others are planning?" Sixer asked Alex at breakfast one morning. It was just the two of them, since the others had taken off and Maria had yet to make an appearance.

"Depends," Alex replied. "Why do you want to know?"

Sixer frowned a little. "Well, I don't know what they're planning _for._ Unless they're attempting to plan a way to help at the end of August and want that to be a surprise."

Alex looked surprised. "You…really can't think of any other reason?"

Sixer shook his head. "No? Should I?"

Alex stared at him with a blank expression for a few seconds. "Your birthday is on June 15th, Uncle Sixer. They're planning a birthday party for all of you."

Birthday?

The term was confusing, but familiar. Sixer frowned, trying to figure out what exactly the word _meant._

He was almost immediately hit with warm summers, the smell of the sea, and a birthday cake sitting in front of himself and Stanley.

Not to mention items that were gift-wrapped and given to them both.

Oh.

"There we go." Alex must have seen the realization on Sixer's face. "Yeah, the kids are going all-out because last year it was a bit chaotic trying to celebrate. Now that we've had time to get used to each other, it's a bit easier."

"But… _I'm_ getting something in this, too?" Sixer asked in confusion.

"Why not? It's your birthday."

"B-but at the same time it's _not._ I haven't thought about a birthday in – in—"

"Since Weirdmageddon?"

Sixer shook his head. "Since I fell through the portal in 1982."

Alex stared. "Which is…"

Sixer's tails flicked. "For me… _several_ centuries ago."

It wasn't as big of a time gap in this dimension, but for Sixer? It almost felt like a lifetime ago, nearly forgotten and left to gather dust at the back of his mind.

"Well, then I'm sure that this will be extra special for you." Alex attempted a smile, but likely the fact that Sixer hadn't celebrated his birthday in a _really_ long time was hitting him hard. "Especially with my daughter and her counterparts at the helm. They really are excellent party planners, when it comes down to it."

Sixer smiled a little. "I don't doubt it."

"Good. So…how about we keep your mind off the birthday stuff for a little bit longer? I don't think that my niece wants you trying to overhear what it is they're up to."

Keeping his mind off the coming birthday was a little bit more difficult than it might have been, had Sixer not been informed that June 15th was actually an important day for him. He found his mind drifting back to the birthdays he'd had in his almost-forgotten past, when he and Crescent were children and they didn't have to worry about demons or the world falling apart around them.

It made him excited, but at the same time, it made him nervous.

Birthdays were supposed to celebrate how old a person had become, right?

So how old was _he_ , really _?_

The only answer he had for that lay in his tails, but…that wasn't an exact number. It just told him how many centuries he had lived through. And even then, the number likely wasn't exact to how time _used_ to run in his original dimension. Time was nonexistent there now, wasn't it? At least, in the normal conventions.

Sixer frowned, worried. If anyone asked him how old he was…would he ever be able to have a proper answer?

 **Time Break**

June 15th.

Sixer stood out on the lawn with the rest of his counterparts, and Crescent with his. Mostly, they were milling about, waiting for Mabel, Mabelcorn, Maple, and Mizar to come out with whatever they were working on in Alex's kitchen.

Sixer let his gaze wander around the clearing. From what he had _heard,_ the decorations and party this year were quieter than previous parties Mabel was put in charge of. It was likely that this was because focus was going into preparing for the end of the world as well.

Still, that didn't mean that Mabel couldn't be creative. The four girls had created small models of planets and boats, strung them together, and then hung them between the Shacks in a complicated, crazy spiderweb where the strings crisscrossed and connected with each other in ways that Sixer thought might have been impossible under ordinary circumstances.

They hadn't included Star in their plans, which Sixer had found odd. Not even in Alex's kitchen right at this moment.

"They didn't want you to help?" Sphinx looked at Star with curious surprise.

"I don't know how things work in a kitchen." Star fidgeted a little.

Sixer's ears flicked at her words. Ah. That would probably mean an inability to help.

"I'd go in there and help, but they didn't want me going in there either." Maria, standing next to Sixer folded her arms across her chest and frowned.

Sixer frowned at her, curious. "Why not?"

"Because Mabel found out last week that we didn't celebrate my birthday because I didn't tell anyone when it was and I think she's now combining it with yours this year."

Sixer blinked, looking confused.

"Seriously?" Stanley frowned. "When was it, March?"

"May 28th." Maria shrugged. "The end of the school year was usually accompanied by a birthday celebration for me. It just…stopped, after a while."

May. That was…just last month? And Maria hadn't seen a need to bring it up and let them celebrate her birthday?

Sixer wondered if this was because of all the traveling she had done as a World Jumper, or something else.

"Huh." Stanley frowned. "You really thought you could get away with not telling Mabel what your birthday is."

"It honestly never came up until last week." Maria shrugged. "And Vash happened to be there and mentioned that I didn't see a point in it because of how long I've lived and…that was that."

The looks she got in response to that made her blink in confusion. "What?"

"Kid, you saw everything that happened to us in that cartoon thing," Stan said flatly. "Did you _really_ think that you could live with us for a year and _not_ tell her when your birthday was?"

Maria ducked her head a little at the stares she was getting. "…it was worth a shot."

Stanley snorted. "Not wanting to celebrate it because you don't count the years isn't as bad as other reasons. Let the kid have her fun just this once, all right? Besides." He grinned. "It's not like you've had birthdays with _us_ before ya got here."

While that was _true,_ Sixer wasn't quite used to the idea of a birthday party, even a small one where only family was involved.

And then there was the other matter that had him quietly concerned over himself.

"…I'm not even sure of how old I'm _supposed_ to be."

Maria looked over at Sixer at his words. She frowned. "Do you mean the exact number or something else?"

"…a little of both, I think? I know that the tails of a kitsune dictate its age, but – every time a tail started to split, the process was sped up. I don't know if…if time was slowed or sped up around me just because seeing my tails split quickly was…." Sixer trailed off, uncertain.

After a point, he hadn't really kept track of his age at all.

Maria's gaze hardened. "We'll figure things out. You probably need time to adjust to time again, and then we can figure out your age from there. Besides, since you have six tails, telling people you're about 600 will probably be enough, unless they're incredibly nosy about the exact number."

Sixer was about to respond to that when door to Alex's Shack was suddenly kicked open, and four Mabels – accompanied by Alex and Karen – as they carried out trays of sandwiches and one big platter with a large cake, decorated in dark purple frosting covered in splatters of white that almost resembled the Milky Way.

The sight of the cake was appropriately greeted with oos and aahs from group of Pines gathered in the clearing. The group of artistic teenagers who had put everything together grinned proudly at the positive response.

"All right, everybody! Before we commence with the birthday celebrations, I got a little announcement to make!" Mabel climbed up on a table, standing between sandwich platters. "We almost _missed_ an important birthday! Maria's birthday was on May 28, and she didn't _tell_ us!"

There it was. Sixer watched as everyone turned their focus to Maria, who looked around in response. She tried to keep a straight face, but it looked like she was a little bit nervous.

"So we're gonna celebrate her birthday _and_ our Grunkles' birthdays!" Mabel concluded. "And then I'm gonna figure out when Vash's and Knives' birthdays are so we can do that too!"

"Um…" Vash raised a hand from the back of the group. "We were born in space, technically? So I don't know what date it would have been on Earth."

"Well, pick something!" Mabel replied. "It doesn't matter what the date is, so long as you celebrate it at least once a year!"

"We'll consider it," Knives replied shortly. "Perhaps we should keep our focus on the people who have important milestones _today?"_

"Right! Let's eat cake!"

"We gotta sing first!" Maple corrected quickly.

Mabel slapped a hand against her forehead. "Right, right! I almost forgot! Ready, girls?"

"Ready!" came the response of three other Mabels speaking at once.

Sing? Sixer looked confused.

Then the four Mabels cleared their throats and started singing.

 _Happy Birthday to you…._

Sixer found himself almost hit in the face with a wave of nostalgia, brought on by these four singing nieces. Yes, their voices were mostly in unison and it made for a strange sound, but that didn't mean that it sounded _bad._

After the song, the cake was passed out - dark chocolate and vanilla, mixed together in such a manner that it looked like they were eating the night sky even _without_ the frosting. It tasted _delicious_.

Sixer quickly finished off his slice and found himself still hungry for a second. The chocolate was something that he felt he needed, and he did not want to be without.

"Grunkle Sixer, wait!" Mabel tugged on his sleeve before he could go for the half of the cake that was left. "How about that?"

She pointed towards a bowl. It was filled with little colorful, bean-shaped things.

It took Sixer a second to recognize them, and when he did, his eyes went wide.

 _Jellybeans._ And a whole bowl of them!

Oh, it had been a _long time_ since he had eaten those.

Sixer proceeded to take two handfuls of the sugary candy and started to eat them slowly. Oh, how he'd missed these.

"We've got presents!" Mabelcorn started making her way through the group, handing out gifts from saddlebags that hung from her sides. They weren't very big things – books on recent scientific discoveries, little drawings and crafts to keep as trinkets.

Mabelcorn trotted over to Sixer and dug around in the pouches for a moment before pulling out a book. She held it out to him. "We didn't wrap them this year, but this one's yours, Grunkle Sixer. Dipper said it might be a good idea if you had it."

Sixer blinked then reached over with a jellybean-free hand and looked the book over curiously.

The front cover had a kitsune and a few other creatures that Sixer didn't recognize interacting together. It looked new and old at the same time, somehow.

"He said you might need to know more about what a kitsune is, if you're taking lessons on stuff from Maria," Mabelcorn explained. "That's a good start, right?"

A gift to help him?

Sixer smiled a little and nodded. "Thank you."

Mabelcorn grinned, then skipped off to the next nearest grunkle.

As soon as she was gone, Sixer turned his attention to the jellybeans.

The bowl was about half-empty, now.

Eh. He might as well finish it off.

Sixer tucked the book under one arm and held the bowl close as he went to eating the rest of the jellybeans. There were other bowls; his counterparts were not rendered bereft of them just by his eating these.

"I see that some things never changed."

Sixer looked over as Maria spoke and motioned to the jellybeans. She looked amused, and was holding two boxes. One of them had a cartoonish duck on the front, the other a terrible special-effects ghost.

Sixer blinked, then swallowed his mouthful of candy goodness. His tails were twitching and flicking while his ears turned in order to track the sounds of his counterparts and Crescent and his counterparts thanking Mabels and Dippers for their thoughtful gifts.

"I…I missed eating them? I think that's the appropriate response?" Sixer looked down at the bowl. "I hadn't realized that I had ever missed them until Mabel showed me this."

Maria smiled, but it wasn't a full smile. "Yeah. I get that too, sometimes." She looked down at the two boxes in her hands. "I was…kinda starting to think that birthdays were useless endeavors, after I stopped keeping close track of my age. But something about today…it's making me rethink that. Just a little."

Sixer smiled a little in response. "It is…nice." His smile faded. "But if we cannot stop what's coming—"

"I know." Maria patted him on the arm with one hand while she made the boxes disappear with her other. "We're preparing all that we can for that, and I think that we're going to be able to beat him back. So, in light of that…." She pulled something out from under her jacket and held it out to Sixer.

It was…

A burgundy red journal. Sixer recognized that color. But the _symbol_ on the cover surprised him.

"You – this is the one you were planning on writing about—"

"I know," Maria replied. "But I think that it'll see more proper use in your hands."

A six-fingered hand with a pinwheel of six fox tails behind it. Looking at the symbol made him feel a small amount of unease, but not much.

Maria was using it to represent something other than what Cipher did.

"Use it to re-record information from your old journals you want to keep, or write new things about the forest, or yourself. I don't care what you do with it – I'm considering this my birthday gift to you." Maria pushed the journal forward a little.

Sixer took the book with his free hand, looking it over with an expression of amazement. "You…you didn't have to do this."

"Probably not. But…I wanted to."

Sixer winced a little at the ache in his chest when Maria said that word. She had been careful to avoid using it too much, but…this time it felt purposeful.

She had meant to say it.

"Thank you."

Maria smiled and patted him on the arm again. "Anytime, Sixer. Let's see if there's anything else sweet around here to munch on. I'm pretty sure that you're nearly out of jelly beans!"


	27. Last-Minute Preparations

**Next week's posting is gonna be a bit weird, because I'm going to be working on Black Friday and that means that my posting schedule's gonna get a little...odd. I'll try to get it posted on Thursday _or_ by Sunday at the latest, because next chapter's gonna be an important one.**

 **Chapter 27 - Last-Minute Preparations**

About a week after the Stans and Fords turned a year older, the summer magic that normally accompanied vacations away from school turned to the tension one might feel when preparing for an important event.

In this case, war.

Static rippled across the town in the early morning air.

 **"All right! We're gonna run a drill with the Shacktron 2.0 and I need all my pilots up here stat!"**

Fiddleford's shriek from the loudspeakers he'd apparently built into the mansion served as a wake-up call once a week. Considering that the whole town and the forest could hear it, it only served as a warning towards the impending doom that was coming at the end of the summer.

Sixer cringed at the sound and threw an arm over his head in order to block it out.

"Hey!" Crescent shook him. "Come on, you—"

"I know!" Sixer cut him off. "I just wish he wasn't so _loud_ in the morning. My ears _hate_ it."

His response was enough to get Crescent to leave him be, and when his ears were done ringing, Sixer made his way out of the bedroom and downstairs.

He was just in time to see the others rush out the door and leave him behind, which he was fine with. He and Maria usually did something different during the time they were busy.

He ate some of the remains of breakfast that the others had left behind, then moved the dirty dishes to the kitchen sink and stepped outside.

Maria was already standing on the lawn, frowning and not looking happy. She looked over at him when he stepped onto the lawn.

"The others have already gone out," he said. "What's the plan?"

"They're running through drills so that they can get used to how Fiddleford's Shacktron works," Maria replied. "And maybe figure out how any abilities anyone has could be used against the Henchmaniacs when they get here." She paused. "There's something that I still want to do, and I'm going to need to head over into the next town in order to do it."

"What is it?"

"Journal suggested that holy items would be enough against…a certain Henchmaniac," Maria said carefully. "I was planning on getting as much holy water as possible from the nearest cathedral, but I'm going to have to go to the next town over in order to get any."

A certain Henchmaniac?

Oh.

Maria paused, then added, "I wasn't going to ask you to come with me because I don't know how well-adapted any _other_ towns outside of Gravity Falls are with what lives in the woods in this valley. I'm gonna get looks for flying in there on a hoverboard – you'd _definitely_ get looks. I didn't…want to make the town get more attention than it already has."

Get looks? Why was she worried about that?

Sixer frowned. "I've been in places where I have received stares before. I am not afraid of receiving more, if you require my aid."

Maria frowned. "Are you sure?"

"My counterparts see me as nothing more than the horseman of death and a harbinger of chaos, Maria. I think I can handle whatever looks I may receive outside of Gravity Falls."

Maria looked surprised. "Really?"

Sixer nodded. "I've faced worse insults and stares from my counterparts and those affected in other dimensions by…by what Cipher has done. I think I'll be okay."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Well…all right. But I don't exactly have room on my hoverboard for two."

"I can keep up on foot."

Maria blinked. "How?"

She didn't know?

Oh, right. Sixer had never _showed_ her his fox form. It might be a good idea to do that now.

Sixer lowered himself into a crouch…and then started to change. The fur that covered his tails started to take over his clothes and what bare skin he had. His head elongated slightly into a proper snout.

In moments, Sixer was no longer in a humanoid form, but in the form of a six-tailed fox.

Maria stared, a little wide-eyed. "Whoa." She walked around him, taking a wide berth because of his tails. "You're…you're about the size of a Ninetales, Sixer. And you can go fast like this?"

Sixer nodded. He couldn't speak since he was without human vocal chords, but that didn't mean he couldn't communicate.

"Okay." Maria backflipped, her red and orange hoverboard appearing underneath her almost out of nowhere before her feet could hit the ground. She landed on the hovering machinery instead of the dirt, then looked over at Sixer. "We've got a bit of a trek ahead of us, so let's get moving while we still have daylight."

Sixer nodded again and made a noise that sounded almost like a bark.

Maria turned and started down the driveway and out onto the road before turning and heading away from Gravity Falls. While she stayed on the edge of the road, Sixer stuck to the trees while he kept himself in her peripheral. Keeping up with her in this manner was an interesting challenge, as he hadn't been in fox form for some time, but it was nice to be able to surprise her with something he was capable of.

They kept up a decent pace through the woods, but it took some time before they came across the town Maria had spoken of. They moved passed the sign at the town's border before Maria slowed to a stop.

"We're looking for a big, old cathedral," Maria said. She stepped off the hoverboard as Sixer came to a stop next to her. "There can't be that many out here, although I once knew a town that had four different churches in it at once."

Instead of letting the hoverboard vanish, Maria grabbed it and tucked it under her arm. Then she started walking down the street.

Sixer shifted as he followed after her, rising from four legs to two as his tails rearranged themselves behind him. While Maria kept her eyes towards the roofs of buildings, he watched for anyone who might be walking or driving by.

There was a couple across the street from them who stared as they moved past, then quickly averted their gazes when they noticed that Sixer was looking back at them. A man in a car driving past stared for a second before quickly returning his attention to the road in front of him.

He was used to stares, but these…these were of wide-eyed surprise and shock, not shock and accusing rage. It was a little different from what he had been expecting.

"There we go." Maria nodded to a spire that rose into the skyline, off to her left. "Now to get over there and see if they'd be willing to part with any of their holy water."

She started towards the spires, cutting across the road. Sixer stuck to her side, keeping in step just a little bit behind her.

More drove and walked by, sending Sixer and Maria stares. There weren't many people out and about currently, but that didn't mean their stares went by unnoticed.

Sixer wondered what would happen if they were stopped.

Would Maria warn them about the oncoming armageddon that was going to be here at the end of the summer?

However, they weren't stopped.

"Looks like we managed to catch the town on a better day for us," Maria commented.

"Because there aren't many people out?" Sixer guessed.

"Yeah. It means we're not being stopped and people aren't asking tons of questions about what we're doing or why I've got a metal board or why you look like that."

Ah. Maria was concerned about how people outside of Gravity Falls would react to his not-human appearance. That was the problem.

Sixer nodded. "I…can see how that would be advantageous."

"I just hope that we don't get sprung on when we get to the cathedral."

They weren't. They got more stares and people hastily moving away from them, but nothing more than that. It was strange. Slightly uncomfortable, but now as bad as people looking at him like they wanted to murder him.

Then again, their anger had been valid back then.

It didn't take them long to reach the cathedral, but as Maria walked up the stairs, Sixer found himself unable to follow.

There was…something about the feel of this place. An aura of protection.

And whatever it was, it didn't want Sixer stepping inside.

Maria paused halfway up the stairs to the entrance and turned to frown at Sixer. "Everything okay?"

Sixer fidgeted. "I…something about this place feels like I shouldn't go in." His tails twitched, making him look more agitated. "I-I don't know _why,_ but it just—"

The doors opened behind Maria, and a man with graying hair and wearing a basic black set of priest's robes stepped out. "What's all this? A living demon on my doorstep?"

Maria whirled sharply and glared at the priest, her gaze harsh. "Sixer _isn't_ a demon. He may look like something from out of Asian folklore, but he _isn't_ a demon."

The priest frowned. "And how do you know that? The creatures of Asian mythologies are clearly spirits that are tricksters by nature – they can lead you down a darker path that—"

"There's a lot more at stake than my faith in this situation!" Maria snapped. "He didn't _ask_ to be changed! He didn't _ask_ for his dimension to be destroyed!"

That got an odd look from the priest. "His dimension?"

Sixer's ears pulled back a little. "Maria, is it wise to tell him?"

"I was going to have to tell him anyway when I asked for holy water." Maria made a huffing sigh of irritation. "I just wasn't expecting to do it out in the open like this."

The priest's eyes narrowed. "Come inside, young lady. I would like to speak with you in private."

Maria blinked in surprise, then looked over at Sixer. "But what about—"

"This place has been blessed against beings such as himself. He can wait in the gardens on the grounds, but that is the closest he will ever get to the sanctuary."

Maria frowned. "But all that's happened to Sixer is…he was changed from _being_ human; why would that make him—"

"If he was changed, then it is likely that demonic forces were involved," the priest replied briskly. "He will not be able to set foot in a church until he has been cleansed of that demon's touch."

Ah. That…made sense. Cipher had likely left a mark on him somehow that marked Sixer as…as different.

He shifted uneasily. Well, he couldn't do anything about that now.

Maria turned and looked back at him.

It took Sixer a second to find his voice. "I-I'll be all right. You go on."

Maria hesitated, but then the priest put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come. I'm sure he can take care of himself."

Sixer gave the two of them a nod, then moved around the side of the building and started looking for the garden that the priest had mentioned.

It didn't take him too long to find it.

Around the left side of the cathedral was a small area with flowers and a couple trees, with benches here and there, made of some kind of white stone.

Sixer sat on one and sighed, resting his elbows on his thighs while his tails flopped down behind him. He had done a good job of hiding it before, but running from Gravity Falls to here had taken a lot out of him. A chance to sit and get a proper breather was definitely appreciated.

A gun cocked.

Sixer's ears flicked towards the sound immediately as he stiffened. He started to move in order to see who was pointing a gun where.

"Don't. Move."

Sixer froze. He knew that voice.

"What the hell are you doing here?" a Ford hissed from behind Sixer. "Come to collect another counterpart for your damned Master? Is that it?"

…a Ford who was terribly behind the times.

"I don't work for him anymore," Sixer replied, not looking back.

That got a derisive laugh. "Right. Like I'm about to believe that, Death."

So that was his moniker among his counterparts now? One of many, more than likely.

"Believe what you wish, but it is the truth," Sixer replied. "Cipher lost his hold on me at the start of last summer. Now I am with someone else."

"And break your deal with him? He doesn't—"

"I _never_ made a deal with him for this."

There was a momentary pause, then a slightly-shaken, "Who was it? Who would be able to cause something like _that_ to—"

"Does the title World Jumper ring any bells?"

There was a pause.

Suddenly, Sixer was rushed from the side, slamming him off the bench and into the wall of the cathedral. One arm went across his chest, and a familiar model of a gun that was _not_ native to Earth was pointed in his face.

"How the _hell_ is that possible?!" Ford demanded.

Sixer took only a second to take in the other's features – brown hair instead of gray, but the stripe forming around the back of his neck – before he responded. "Could you be a bit more specific?"

"How the _hell_ did someone manage to _convince_ you to—"

"I wasn't _convinced._ I was _taken._ And I am all the better for it."

That caused Ford to pause. "Better?"

"I don't do what _he_ had me do. Not anymore." More of Sixer's focus was on the gun than Ford himself. He could tell it was primed and could shoot Sixer's face off in an instant if he wasn't careful.

He doubted Maria would appreciate that very much.

Ford's eyes narrowed. "And he doesn't know? Because people are still talking about you 'being away on a mission' for a little while."

Ah.

Sixer's ears flicked. "Well, I _was,_ before Maria intervened. She's inside the cathedral currently."

Ford frowned. "What was it."

Sixer's ears flicked. "He didn't _just_ take our counterparts. He takes dimensions and adds them to his chaos. My family and I arrived _here_ at the end of last summer, and we were pulled from his control almost immediately. But that hasn't stopped him. He's coming here."

Ford's face shifted immediately. "What do you mean, he's coming here?!"

Sixer winced at the yell.

"When?! What sort of dimension is this that caught _his_ attention?"

"He—"

"Hey!"

Maria had just come around the corner of the cathedral, the priest right behind her.

Sixer relaxed with a sigh of relief. Ford noticed.

 _"That's_ the one?" Ford hissed. "She's just a kid, how did she—"

"Don't let her appearance deceive you," Sixer replied with a knowing gleam in his eyes.

"Yeah; his Cipher has a bounty on _my_ head." Maria walked over to the two of them. "Come on, Ford, drop your weapon. Sixer's not gonna do anything."

Not unless Maria told him to, no.

Ford looked between Sixer and Maria, then gritted his teeth in frustration and stepped away. "You need to get out of here, kid. If he's coming here—"

"I'm not leaving." Maria folded her arms across her chest. "We rescued Sixer _and_ his family from Cipher. I'm not about to force us to start dimension hopping in order to just barely stay ahead of him. That's only going to cause more dimensions to fall apart, and since this one's a Gravity Falls 'verse, I doubt you want that to happen, either."

Ford snorted. "You think you can stop a Cipher that has destroyed countless dimensions before this one, _and_ remain alive by the end of it?"

"Yes. Because Cipher did something that was incredibly stupid." Maria grinned. "He merged _four_ Gravity Fallses together. And he gave us _plenty_ of time to prep. You should see what Fiddleford's built – the Shacktron 2.0 looks like it could punt the Fearamid right into the cliffs and leave it _stuck_ there."

That was an interesting picture. Likely impossible, but it was nice to imagine that.

"Fiddleford did what?" Ford said.

"These four dimensions have also defeated their respective Ciphers before the merging," Sixer spoke up. "Everyone in Gravity Falls knows what's at stake."

The look on Ford's face clearly said he hadn't been expecting that.

"Excuse me," the priest spoke up. "Martin Vigo, the priest for this church. Why were you so antagonistic towards him? I assume from your reactions that the two of you have…met?"

Sixer found that second question unlikely.

Ford's face hardened. "I've heard rumors; I haven't met him before this moment." He sent a glare at Sixer, who took the glare in stride. The kitsune just looked tired in return. "He is Cipher's _pet,_ sent out to collect Fords and destroy dimensions."

Martin looked pale.

"Because he was forced to!" Maria jumped in. "Puppeteer did _something_ to his soul; he _couldn't_ resist, and he still can't. Except that he's with me now, now that crazed three-sided lunatic!"

"Which I know _now,"_ Ford replied. "But you can't expect the rest of the multiverse to know that _Death_ was actually _Puppet."_

Sixer winced, ears flicking back, but he didn't argue. That moniker was…just as unfortunately applicable.

Maria gritted her teeth in response. "I hope to Primus _that_ wasn't the nickname for Sixer that Stanford sent into the Council of Fords."

There was another flicker of surprise on Ford's face, but he reigned it back quickly. "If he's coming here, then I need a way out of this dimension quickly. My counterpart informed me that you would know a way for me to leave?"

Maria frowned at Ford, then reached forward and grabbed his free hand and focused on it. The action confused Sixer and clearly surprised Ford.

"…Dimension 44-BZ," Maria said after a moment. "There we go."

"How did you—"

"I'm a walking stable portal generator, been one for _centuries,_ now shush."

Ford shut his mouth, wide-eyed, while Sixer grinned at him, smug. Apparently, his counterpart hadn't run into a World Jumper face-to-face before.

Maria ignored the people around her as she brought her hands to her chest and focused. Energy was quickly built up, giving her arms a blue glowing aura.

"And—Ha!"

Maria threw her arms forward and sent the energy off her arms in the process. The energy very quickly condensed in on itself, forming a flat, circular blue disk of swirling energy.

"Go on." Maria made a shooing motion at Ford. "Your dimension's wide open for some reason; your Cipher didn't seal it off."

"Of course he didn't; he's already dead," Ford huffed.

Sixer stared. How did he know?

"What?" Maria snorted. "How? Did you go through Weirdmageddon already?"

"No. I was one of the ones who ran into a counterpart who was _caught_ and escaped. _He_ said Cipher said that someone was going out and killing Ciphers, and had gotten to mine." Ford nodded to Sixer, who blinked a couple times.

That meant…

"The Breakout," Sixer said. "Which one did you meet?"

"The one in Entropy's cell." Ford shrugged. "He escaped with another Ford who had a Rick's portal gun."

Sixer frowned. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "I remember that green explosion. It's good to know that he managed to escape."

Ford blinked, then shook his head and snorted. "Just don't get yourself stuck again. I think you owe us that after so many years of trouble."

He then turned and strode through the portal without another word.

Maria flicked her wrist, causing the portal to wink out of existence. "Well, he was rude."

"…he likely has a lot on his mind," Sixer replied quietly. "I just confirmed to him that I had not made a deal with Cipher for my power, much less my current position."

That would likely cause his position among his counterparts to shift, if Ford ever met his counterparts.

"He likely will have a lot to think about now, especially now that he has returned home and he doesn't have a Cipher threatening him," Sixer added.

Maria frowned.

"So that is what my sister and her family do," Martin said with some amazement. He gained a more determined expression a moment later. "I'll get you more holy water over the next few weeks, but it takes time to bless it. You're in Gravity Falls, you said?"

"618 Gopher Road, Uncle Martin," Maria replied. "At the Mystery Shack."

 _Uncle?_

"I'll keep that in mind." Martin frowned. "And I think it might be wise to call the family you have _here._ "

"I—"

"I know they aren't _technically_ your family, but I think they would appreciate seeing a counterpart of _our_ Maria, even for a little while." Martin started back towards the cathedral's entrance. "Just think about it, young lady. I look forward to the look of shock on my sister's face when she discovers what her daughter has gotten up to."

Maria blinked as he walked away, looking blank-faced.

Did Maria just find family here?

No. that couldn't be right – this wasn't her home dimension. Then that meant…counterparts?

He decided against following that train of thought. They had other things to be thinking about.

"…you got the holy water?" Sixer asked behind her.

Maria stiffened a little, then gave a stuttering answer while she nodded. "Y-yeah. I've got some. Let's head back."

Sixer nodded, then shifted down to his fox form. He looked at her expectantly.

Maria sighed. "All right."

Her hoverboard dropped out of thin air and hovered next to her. She stepped onto it, then flew off down the street. Sixer followed after her.


	28. Weirdmageddon

**And thus, it begins.**

 **Thanks to GneFeng for the Fav and Follow!**

 **Chapter 28 – Weirdmageddon**

It was the end of summer.

The sky was clear, the weather was warm but not unbearably wet or sticky, and there was a calm over the town that could only be felt in summer. Nothing pressing for children to worry about other than playing in the sun and at the public pool and spending time with friends.

At least, that's how it was two years ago, when the only people who had known the apocalypse _could_ be coming were Fords and Dippers.

Now, there was a tension in the air that caused the calm to feel more like unease. And _everyone_ felt it.

Sixer could feel his instincts screaming at him to run for the hills as soon as possible as he and Maria walked through town. There was a pressure in the air, an uneasily balancing stillness, that he had felt so many different times that he had long ago lost count. Or never counted in the first place. He knew what it was that was coming, just as much as everyone else did.

If they _hadn't_ known Cipher was coming, they would have only been aware of an unusual tension that no one liked the feel of, much less wanted to be anywhere near.

Sixer's tails twitched in agitation as the local Gravity Falls population moved quickly from place to place, never wanting to stay out in the open for long.

They had to be thinking the same thing he was.

"He's close," Sixer said under his breath. "He has to be."

"We woke up this morning feeling like this dimension was waiting on baited breath; of course he's close," Maria replied. "I've been feeling like there's something in my chest waiting to burst."

"Then why aren't we waiting in the Shack?" It was arguably safer there than anywhere in town. Unicorn hair would keep them safe.

Unicorn hair would keep away Cipher and his want to take Sixer back.

"There's too much energy to deal with," Maria replied. "If the two of us had stayed in the Shack we would be pacing and would rather be outside. Being in town in case it goes off today is better than waiting."

Sixer swallowed. "Maybe, but we're still out in the open."

He didn't like this.

Maria rubbed at her chest and winced. She shook her head. "Maybe. But we're prepared. Things may get rocky, but things are—"

Maria cut herself off with a grunt and stumbled. Sixer was immediately on the alert.

"Maria?" Sixer hovered over Maria worriedly. "Are you all right?"

Maria righted herself and shook her head. "I'm fine. Just feels like someone tried to gut-punch me."

There was no one nearby who had, or would even consider daring to.

Then that meant….

Maria stumbled again and wrapped her arms around her middle.

"He's coming." Sixer's voice trembled.

He had known that Cipher was coming for an entire year. But spending time with Maria – Maria helping him climb out of his shell and become more himself – had caused him to not think that the arrival was this close.

But all the same, suddenly, it _was._

Maria hissed from between her teeth. "He's testing the dimensional walls. He has to be. And the fact that I'm feeling this much pain means—"

Maria abruptly cried out and fell to her knees as a ripple of _something_ ran down Sixer's back and into his tails, causing his fur to stand almost on end. Sixer quickly braced himself as he looked up at the sky, ears pulled back.

There came the sound of something ripping that was _never_ supposed to filled the air as a large, circular rift was torn into the sky from somewhere beyond this dimension. The kaleidoscope of colors on the other side would have hurt the eyes of anyone else, but not Sixer.

He had been trapped within them for far too long to be concerned with them.

Familiar laughter echoed from the other side as a familiar, glaring yellow triangle appeared on the other side of the right.

 _"AW, LOOK AT THAT! GRAVITY FALLS! SEEING IT ALL IN ONE PIECE IS MAKING ME NOSTALGIC FOR ITS DESTRUCTION!"_

Sixer saw the eye-smile and knew they were in for a bad time.

He saw Maria looking up at Cipher and quickly moved to help her to her feet. She didn't say anything in response, so focused was she on the chaos above their heads.

 _"SINCE MY LAST GRAVITY FALLS IS NOW NOTHING BUT INTER-DIMENSIONAL STARDUST, I'M MAKING THIS PLACE MY NEW BASE OF OPERATIONS."_ Cipher floated through the rift and into their dimension. _"I HOPE YOU'RE ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT I'M GOING TO DO TO THIS DIMENSION, BECAUSE I KNOW THAT I AM!"_

Sixer glanced around and noticed that the townsfolk were frozen too, staring in horror at what was happening above them. "We need to go – now."

"Let's get these guys to the Shack or the mansion," Maria said as Cipher turned to face the rift. "They're facing down their most terrifying nightmares. We have to snap them out of it."

 _"ALL RIGHT, HENCHMANIACS! YOU KNOW THE DRILL – TIME TO GET OUT THERE AND HAVE SOME REAL FUN MESSING THIS PLACE UP! PARTY TIME!"_

The cackling, crazed sounds that answered him only sent _more_ chills down Sixer's spine. How many of them did Cipher bring here for this?

"Guys, we have to move – now!" Maria barked. "Get to the Shacks or Fiddleford's mansion, but we have to move! We can't remain as sitting ducks here!"

That got the humans on the street moving, thankfully. The townsfolk turned and scrambled in all directions as a crowd of creatures and humanoid monsters came from the rift.

And there were so _many_ of them.

Sixer knew how many humans had come to Cipher and asked for a deal for power of their own. He had _seen_ them come forward and shake hands with Cipher while he had looked down on them in sly triumph.

So when he saw the multitude that was crowding the rift, he went a little pale.

" _All_ of them?" Sixer asked. "Why is he –"

And then it hit him as to why.

"Oh no."

 _"ANYONE WHO FINDS MY RUNAWAY PUPPETS GETS DIBS ON THE PINES IN THIS DIMENSION!_ "

Cipher was going to hunt them down and _find them,_ if they didn't do something.

But, wait – Pines? Did he intend to hand over _all four sets of the family?_

Or was there something else going on?

Maria and Sixer exchanged looks.

"Back to the Shacks?" Sixer asked.

Maria nodded vigorously. "We can't take them all at once. We need backup."

Sixer nodded in agreement, and the two took off down the street.

Explosions went off as the Henchmaniacs hit the ground and started going after the buildings and people in town. Not many of them landed in Sixer's and Maria's path yet, and of the ones that did they found themselves quickly distracted by the townsfolk.

Above them, the sky turned an angry and unfortunately familiar red as Cipher cackled madly. A ripple of weirdness rolled across the landscape, turning the buildings into a sudden kaleidoscope of colors and shapes that made some of the buildings look like they'd been pulled out of an abstract painting.

Maria shuddered, but Sixer wasn't thrown off by the sudden change. This was the sort of thing he was used to seeing from Cipher's work.

He'd lived through far too many Weirdmageddons across different dimensions to really be able to say he was startled by this.

People were still running screaming in all directions as they tried to avoid the monsters spewing from the rift. Some shot at the monsters, getting roars of pain from the creatures. Those roars quickly turned into anger as the weird creatures retaliated.

A familiar purple lightning demon – the same horned, purple satyr-monster that once been a cameraman, the first to take Cipher's deal – took an axe to the face from Manly Dan as they passed.

"About time," Sixer muttered. "Couldn't stand that damn attitude of his."

The creature hissed and spat, then turned and snarled, electricity sparking from his fingers. "How dare you, you—"

Maria shot a fireball into the monster's face, forcing him to shut his eyes and screech in pain. "Dan, run!"

"No way!" Dan readied another axe. "I'm not letting these things turn me to stone again! I'm gonna carve this thing a new one for thinking he could turn me inta barbecue!"

The lightning demon hissed and turned, tracking where Maria's voice had come from. The scorch march across the bridge of his nose and the whites of his eyes suggested he had gone blind at some point. "Who—"

The demon was promptly cut off with another axe to its lower jaw, bringing out another howl of pain.

"GO!" Dan bellowed. "I'll be fine!"

Maria hesitated, then nodded and took off running again while Sixer followed suit. She jumped over an animated charcoal grill that Sixer quickly skirted around. He was tempted to punt the round sphere of metal with its unusually short legs, but decided against it. They didn't need more attention.

"That was one of the new ones?" Maria asked.

"What do you mean?" Sixer kept pace with her, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed.

"A minion Puppeteer made after Weirdamgeddon started."

"Ah. Yes, that's…one of them." Sixer frowned. "The first one."

"Really? Well, I hope he gets what's coming to him."

 _"COME ON, FELLAS! LET'S GET THAT FEARAMID MOVED IN HERE FROM THAT CRAPPY DEAD DIMENSION! MY PUPPETS' PLACE HAS LOST ITS LUSTER, YA KNOW? THIS DIMENSION'S GONNA BE MY NEW DIGS!"_

Sixer closed his eyes and sighed at Cipher's words. He didn't need to look back to know what he was doing.

The monster's words were enough to confirm it.

"'Lost its luster'?" Maria repeated. "But then – that means your dimension is—"

Sixer grabbed Maria's arm and yanked her off the street and into an alley, just as a bubble of weirdness energy moved up the street in the opposite direction. Screams came from the direction the two had come from as it disappeared.

"I've…seen the decay from his throne room," Sixer said carefully after a moment. "I…suppose it was only a matter of time."

Watching the planet come apart beneath their feet, taking the people and changed landscapes with it, had been confirmation enough over the centuries: Sixer's dimension did not have what it took to stay together and support someone as crazed as Cipher at the same time. If Cipher was moving his base of operations _here,_ then that meant Sixer's home dimension was collapsing into the Nightmare Realm, never to be recovered.

He didn't like thinking about it.

"Sixer—"

"We should keep moving, I think." Sixer peered out of the alley as what looked like a muscular cthulu stomped by, crushing buildings on the other side of the street. "We're sitting ducks out here, Maria, and as much as I could tell you, I would rather not do it in the middle of all this."

Maria's expression became more determined. "Right. Sorry."

The two waited for a head being dragged by its attached arm to move past them before bolting out into the open and down the streets of ruined buildings. Only a few minutes into Weirdmageddon and it was already starting to look like the world was in an accelerated ending stage.

There were shouts and gunshots going off in the distance. People were fighting back, but how many? And for how long before the Henchmaniacs got the drop on any of them?

The town very quickly gave way to a red-dirt wasteland, the trees pushed a fair distance back. Monsters of every shape and size dotted the landscape, occasionally fighting each other or chasing after humans and creatures that normally only live in the woods.

"We're too exposed," Maria said grimly.

The look on Sixer's face said he agreed. "We'll need to move quickly."

"And not get caught." Maria flipped backward onto her hoverboard, activating her armor as she did. "Let's roll!"

The two of them bolted out from the half-decent shelter of town and towards the woods. Sixer pushed in order to keep up with Maria as she flew, making sure that he didn't fall behind.

The first group of monsters they happened to cross paths with were rather promptly met with twin spheres of fire to their faces. They fell back screaming, scrambling to get away from the two while the townsfolk in front of them blinked in surprise.

"Get to safety!" Sixer barked. "And quickly!"

"I sure hope you two are, too!" Lazy Susan piped up from the group.

"That's the plan," Maria muttered in reply. Her gaze moved around to the other groups.

Sixer didn't follow her gaze as quickly. They were slowed down. If they were going to get to the Shack before they were caught up to by one of Cipher's Henchmaniacs, then—

"There you are, Fordsy!"

 _Oh, no._

Sixer stiffened up as a deep chill settled into the back of his spine.

He recognized that voice.

He turned slowly and looked back, and there she was.

Pyronica was standing not far behind them, looking just as smug and terrible as she had when he'd last seen her.

 _Oh, no._

Maria stepped forward and moved between the two of them. "Sixer." She kept her voice low and even. "Remember what we talked about?"

Sixer shifted. He remembered. But he didn't think it was a good idea now, not with Pyronica standing right in front of them. "Maria, you can't—"

"Distraction, remember?" Maria glanced back at him, expression serious. _"Go._ I'll be fine."

Sixer hesitated, and Pyronica made a cooing noise that caused him to stiffen again.

"Fordsy, is that your new master? Boy, she looks _dull._ I don't suppose she plays with—"

Maria yanked a modified super soaker out of her subspace and shot a blast of holy water at Pyronica.

The blast hit her in the stomach, which resulted in a screech of pain from Pyronica and the sound of sizzling skin. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and doubled over.

Sixer's jaw nearly dropped.

Maria gave the scene a nod and glanced back.

Sixer was looking between the two of them, still wide-eyed.

"GO!" Maria yelled, snapping him out of his stupor. "Get to safety – I'll catch up with you later!"

Sixer jolted and nodded quickly, then turned and ran for the woods. He shifted to fox form mid-stride and disappeared into the trees without looking back.


	29. Indebted

**Chapter 29 – Indebted**

Sixer dove into the underbrush, intending to get as far away from the battlefield as possible. He didn't like the idea of seeing another Henchmaniac ever again, but he knew that he was going to end up seeing at least a few before all this was over.

Maria was armed with the holy water; she _should_ be all right.

But that didn't mean that she was actually going to be all right.

He liked the idea of stopping to look, to watch the fight and make sure that Maria got away from Pyronica safely.

But he couldn't.

He _couldn't._

Because Maria had told him to run back to the Shack, to get away from Pyronica, and he wasn't about to argue with her logic.

Because if he _did_ stop before he reached the Shack, and she was caught, then there was a large chance his strings would be cut and he would be left to die in the woods while Cipher did with Maria what he pleased.

His fur snagged against a few branches, but he shook himself free and kept going. Being in fox form meant he was lower to the ground, yes, but it also looked like the forest was attempting to fight against him. Was the forest working against him now, too?

Then a familiar figure with multiple green eyes open across his body came across his path and screeched to a halt. "Sixer! There you are!"

Sixer came to a quick stop, and nearly slammed into Crescent. He danced back a little and sat down.

"Do you have any idea how worried everyone else has been about you tw—" Crescent stopped short, blinking his many eyes. He frowned. "Where's Maria?"

Sixer's tails twitched back in the direction that he had come from. He shifted back to his more human form and rose up from the crouch he ended up in. "We ran into Pyronica. She ordered me to get back to the Shack and moved to take her on."

Crescent's eyes – _all_ of them – widened sharply at his words. "Scrap. You can't be serious."

"I'm completely serious," Sixer replied. "I need to get back to the Shacks."

"Shack," Crescent corrected. "Three of 'em are gone."

Sixer spluttered. "What?"

"You'll need ta see what happened ta really get the full picture, trust me." Crescent motioned for Sixer to follow him. "When you-know-who dropped through the sky, somethin' came careenin' outta the woods an' just tore three of the Shacks apart without so much as battin' an eye. It was ridiculous."

Sixer frowned. "But…there was unicorn hair around three of the Shacks, why would all of them—"

"Don't ask me, I'm not the expert. My guess is somethin' came scramblin' out of the woods ta run away from what's happenin' in town an' stumbled over the Shacks in the process or somethin'."

Sixer looked worried. "But _what_ would do something like that? The only creature that's possibly large enough would be the Multibear."

"The _what?"_

Sixer was about to explain what the Multibear _was_ when a large explosion went off behind them that caused him to stiffen in alarm.

The twisted scream of pain that followed sent chills down his spine so fast that he uncontrollably shuddered for a moment.

Crescent whistled. "Sounds like she's doing a real number on her. We better get movin', just in case she decides ta retaliate."

Sixer nodded, then took off running deeper into the woods, Crescent right behind him.

When they broke through the trees and into the clearing, Sixer finally saw what Crescent had meant.

It looked like three of the four Shacks had been completely _trampled_ to pieces, with only the fourth one standing out of the tramped-down track of overturned mud and dirt that went through the clearing.

He was tempted to give the tracks a closer look to determine what had caused all this trouble in the first place, but Maria's order was still pulling him towards the still-standing Shack.

"Maybe one of my counterparts saw what happened here," Sixer muttered as he started towards the still-intact building. He realized after a moment that this Shack was the same Shack he had been staying in over the last year.

He didn't know whether it was a good thing Alex's Shack had survived, or a bad thing. Weirdmageddon had a way of putting a lot of decisions up in the air for a while.

"Nice tats, by the way," Crescent said as he walked up to the porch.

Sixer blinked. "What?"

"Maria's marks." Crescent motioned to his own wrists, where….

Sixer frowned at the dollar signs on Crescent that Jewels had shown them back in November. "…same with yours."

"Yup. And as sweet as these are, yours fit pretty well."

Sixer looked down at his wrists and pulled back one sleeve of his sweater so that he could get a better look.

Right there on his wrist was the exact same marking as what he had seen in the mindscape, back when Maria had torn him from Cipher's control. Only now, the markings were very much visible in the physical world, and they seemed to shimmer when Sixer turned his wrist.

It felt…comforting, to see them still there.

Crescent quickly ushered his brother into the house and shut the door behind him. "Hey guys! I found Sixer!"

Sixer was immediately met with a crowd of Pines – and Maria's two adopted nephews – staring at him from couches in the living room and the open doorway into the kitchen.

Most of them. Journal, Andrew, and Alcor were distinctly missing, but then he remembered that the unicorn hair would keep _them_ out just as much as it kept _Cipher_ out.

Vash rose to his feet, looking at Sixer with an expression of relief before his face went to worry. "Where's Maria?"

"Fighting… _her_ , as far as I'm aware," Sixer replied. "She told me to come here – that she would catch up if given the chance. I-I couldn't…"

Vash's expression went from worry to intense concern while Star and Pine winced, looking sympathetic. But Sphinx and Mizar were nearby, so they didn't have as much to worry about as much as Sixer did. Sixer could see now that Pine and Star's markings were visible as well – Star had a galaxy of what looked like Sphinx's paw prints, and Pine had stars that looked similar to Alcor's mark, but not quite. He couldn't determine the difference from this distance, however.

Sixer's tails curled around him, tips twitching.

"Hey. She'll get here sooner'er later." Crescent clapped a hand on Sixer's shoulder. "We just gotta wait fer her to come barrelin' through that door any second now, if that explosion was any indica—"

 _"WELL WELL WELL, LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE."_

How Cipher's voice even managed to reach the shack, Sixer wasn't sure. Considering the demon's _volume,_ he shouldn't have been surprised.

Still, the sound of _his_ voice caused him to stiffen abruptly.

 _"LOOKS LIKE WE CAUGHT OURSELVES A LITTLE TROUBLEMAKER!"_

Oh no. _Oh no._

The Shack fell still very quickly.

Vash, seemingly the only one who still had the thought to move, scrambled over to one of the windows and peered out through the curtains. "I think I can see him – I can just barely make out a yellow shape through the trees."

Sixer's ear flicked.

 _"SORRY, RONNIE – AS MUCH AS I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE TWO OF YOU CAT FIGHT, THIS KID'S ALREADY GOT A DIBS HANGING OVER HER HEAD. I'D GIVE YOU SECOND DIBS, BUT THESE GUYS HAVE GOT PLANS FOR THIS. LITTLE. **WORLD JUMPER."**_

The Dark Arms.

Sixer strode quickly over to the window and looked out himself. He could see the bright yellow through the trees all right, but it wasn't enough to truly make Cipher's form distinct.

But that didn't stop his voice from coming through loud and clear.

 _"RIGHT ON THE NOSE, KID! AND I THINK THEY DID A PRETTY GOOD JOB KEEPING THESE WORLDS STABLE FOR ME, UNLIKE THEIR LAST LITTLE PROJECT. I CAN'T **WAIT** TO SEE WHAT OTHER DIMENSIONS THEY'VE DRAGGED INTO THIS – THE CHAOS THAT CREATED! AND YOU'RE GOING TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT VERY SOON."_

But that didn't mean _Maria's_ voice was projecting as much. Hearing only one half of the conversation was maddening to the point that Sixer was gripping the windowsill with a knuckle-white grip. The wood groaned under his fingers.

Vash's expression was grim as well, but he didn't grip the woodwork as tightly as Sixer did.

"I'm not likin' what I'm hearin'," Crescent muttered behind the two of them.

 _"YEAH, SURE. LIKE I'VE HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE. I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TRYING, KID. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO—GAH!"_

"I'm not either," Star said with a slight tremble in her voice. "He – he's –"

Sixer heard someone move, and Star started weeping. The sound was partially muffled.

Of _course_ Cipher would think that he could turn Maria into a puppet for his own use. It made sense. She was a powerful being that was capable of summoning portals, and had _also_ found a way to rescue himself and his family from Cipher's control. She was a threat to his control.

And he was using an old solution to take care of the problem.

 _"SEE WHAT I MEAN? FOR THAT, I SHOULD CUT YOU OFF FROM FORDSY RIGHT HERE AND NOW, BUT I DON'T SEE HIM, WHICH MEANS HE'S OFF SOMEWHERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A UNICORN BARRIER, ISN'T HE?"_

Sixer stiffened. He had been thinking about that? Of course he had been – Cipher had likely been planning on picking Sixer up from where he had fallen and taking him on from there.

And then likely do something to him to make sure that what had happened here never happened again.

The thought was terrifying.

 _"LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE AS ANNOYINGLY **SMART** AS FORDSY. WELL, IF I CAN'T GET MY PUPPET **BACK,** I MIGHT AS WELL SEE ABOUT MAKING A **NEW** ONE._"

There it was.

Sixer swallowed audibly as the room went completely silent.

 _"I'M GOING TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS. YOUR BUDDIES HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING ME WORK."_

The Dark Arms had wanted a way to control her. Of course they were going to want to see Cipher do it to her in order to learn how to subjugate Maria and others.

Cipher burst out laughing. _"WHAT, YOU THINK THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE NOW THAT I'VE RUN INTO YOU? YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE SPECK IN COMPARISON TO ME. INSIGNIFICANT. NOW – I'D RATHER NOT KEEP MY **GUESTS** FROM THEIR PRIZE! I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO **BREAKING YOU IN."**_

Sixer did _not_ like the sound of that. At all.

He could say that he knew what it meant to be taken like that, and broken down into something he wasn't.

He didn't like the idea of Cipher attempting to do the same thing to Maria that he had done to _him._

The glow of yellow between the trees vanished, and Vash stepped away from the window. He looked at Sixer worriedly.

"What are we going to do?" Vash looked around the living room at the others.

Sixer leaned against the wall next to the window and dragged a hand down his face. "He's going to do to her what he did to me. It'll be the end of the multiverse as we know it at this rate."

Maria was a powerful person – and a World Jumper at that. If Cipher could get her under his control than there was nothing in the multiverse that could possibly stop him from taking over other worlds. And if there was, Sixer couldn't think of one – Maria was just too…too _her_. He couldn't think of anyone who would be able to put a stop to her actions.

"But we can't give up now!" Mabel spoke up.

"Mabel's right," Dipper agreed. "We've survived Weirdmageddon before – we can do it again!"

"Not like this," Star replied. "If we were out there…it'd be so much worse." She shuddered, rubbing at the paw-like sparkles that adorned her wrists.

Sixer and Crescent exchanged grim looks. They knew the truth in that more than the others in the room, not counting Pine. But now they weren't causing chaos – they were thinking about _stopping_ it. But how?

"But we're not gonna give up, are we?" Maple asked. "We _can't._ Our entire dimension's at stake!"

"We aren't going to," Stanford replied. "But we need a plan of action in order to stop this Cipher from doing what he intends."

"Can we do the Zodiac Wheel?" Tyrone suggested. "I mean – we can get everyone from town that we'd need for it and—"

"It wouldn't work."

Everyone looked over at Mizar.

"What makes you say that?" Stanley frowned.

Mizar motioned towards the doorway. "Grunkle Journal said that Zodiacs are dimension-specific. We'd need the ones from Sixer's dimension to make Puppeteer go away."

A bold effort on their parts for a plan.

"And even then, I doubt it would banish him permanently," Sixer said. "He's too powerful – he's taken too many dimensions for that to stop him."

Vash looked over at Sixer, frowning.

"There has to be something we can do," Knives said. "It is impossible for a being such as that to be immortal and indestructible without consequences to himself."

"He's keeping himself going on deals," Mizar replied. "Every monster out there that he's transformed, he did by shaking their hands. Even if we went and fought him head-on, it's going to be impossible for us to take him down like that."

Vash's brow furrowed in worry. "Okay, so maybe there's a chink in his armor somewhere else. Maybe one of the demons he made a deal with?"

"They gave him their eternal loyalty in exchange; they're not going to turn against him." Sixer frowned. He looked out the window again at the slowly-thinning trees. One got up and walked away on spindly root-legs. Sixer didn't bat an eye at the sight; he'd seen it more than enough times already.

"Oh." Vash looked uneasy.

Knives frowned. "So he has never done something as a favor for another."

"There's always a give and take with demon deals," Mizar replied. "They're not exactly ones to do favors for people."

"Yeah," Mabel agreed. "You have to give a _lot_ of candy to Alcor if you want him to do something. Or memories to Grunkle Journal."

While they conversed, Sixer's mind wandered a little. Cipher _always_ made deals with other creatures, creating allies and getting power from them in the process. They couldn't use that to their advantage.

But then another thought occurred to him, and he sucked in a breath sharply at the thought.

Could that work?

"He didn't make deals with _us."_

The only times he remembered shaking Cipher's hand was when he had made deals concerning his research, before being betrayed by the demon.

He didn't remember shaking the demon's hand right before having his willpower pulled out of him.

"Then…that means he owes you." Stan looked around the room at Sixer and his family. "Fer turnin' ya into this."

"And the debt's wracked up interest," Mizar added. "Because he hasn't paid."

"We're his weakness." Sixer turned away from the window. "As much as we were used _by_ him, we can be used against him. We just need to get his attention."

"How?" Vash frowned. "He's got Maria. And the Dark Arms are apparently up there, too."

"We settled this in the Fearamid last time, so why not do that again?" Dipper responded. "Fiddleford's got the Shacktron 2.0 running around out there right now with the B-Team tearing the Henchmaniacs apart – maybe we can—"

"I know a way in."

Now Crescent was the one to get everyone's attention.

"What? It's not like he teleported us in and out of there _all_ the time." Crescent frowned. "Look, there's a number of secret entrances along the bottom of that thing. All Star and Pine have gotta do is lift us up and I can get one of the damn doors open. We can sneak in and cause as much chaos as we can from there."

Sixer remembered something else – something that Maria had talked about a few times in the past.

"Maria has the ability to summon allies, so if we need more people, we should rescue her as soon as possible," Sixer added. "I am…quite certain that her Guild will want to get involved if her life is on the line."

"Okay, so we've got the _beginnings_ of a plan," Stanley said. "Can we _please_ hammer this damn thing out so that we don't go in swinging and end up stuck?"

"Yes, certainly," Stanford agreed. "Do any of you have a basic idea of the Fearamid's layout? That will definitely be helpful in this."

"He uploaded the building's plans into my head."

Everyone stared at Sixer.

"…when did _that_ happen?" Pine asked.

"Bishop's first visit." Sixer grimaced. "But I'd rather put the layout to use _now_ rather than for any other purpose."

Stanford started digging around in his coat for something. "We're going to need to split into teams for distraction and extraction. I assume you will be with the group that will be rescuing Maria from her predicament, Sixer?"

"I know that I will be," Vash volunteered.

Sixer, however, hesitated. Maria had told him to get back to the Shack – to get back to safety. Would she have him join them in this? Or stay behind? "I…I don't…I don't know what she would—"

Crescent slapped his brother in the face, catching Sixer by surprise.

"Listen, Poindexter, you have _got_ to start looking for loopholes more often," Crescent said pointedly. "Maria's in danger – the one holding _your strings_ is in danger. So what are you gonna do about it?"

Sixer rubbed his stinging cheek, frowning. Crescent had a point. If they were all going to be safe – if _Maria_ was going to be safe – he had to step up.

She was his life support. If he was to stay connected to her, he had to step in and do what he had to to keep _her_ alive.

Maria had rescued him. Now it was his turn to rescue her.

"…I'll be on the extraction team," Sixer said in a low growl. "But we are going to be getting his attention the most once we get her out of there, so if we are going to stop him for good—"

"Right," Stanford agreed. "Draw out the map of the Fearamid, we can discuss the plan as you do so. We don't have much time before he does whatever he might be planning."

Sixer nodded in agreement, then took the journal and pen Stanford held out to him. He started drawing immediately.

"All right." Vash cracked his knuckles. "Time to bring this triangle guy down a few pegs."

Sixer didn't voice his agreement, but he definitely felt the same way.

Cipher was going to pay off his debts for what he had done to them.


	30. Breakout the Second

**FOUR CHAPTERS LEFT AFTER THIS ONE!**

 **Chapter 30 – Breakout The Second**

The plan was simple in theory. Probably not so simple in execution, but there were a number of factors they could use to their advantage.

Crescent moved from the shadow of one Henchmaniac to the next, his body shifting almost constantly from one black, shapeless form to another before anyone could see what his shape was. When he reached the figure he wanted, he grabbed the young woman's arm and pulled her behind a collapsed building.

"H-hey!" Wendy pulled her arm out of his grip and turned, axe at the ready. "What kind of—"

"Hey, hey!" Crescent settled into his human form, hands raised. "I just needed ta get yer attention, kid, and with all those henchies around, I didn't wanna risk it."

Wendy stared at Crescent for a moment, then lowered her axe. "What's going on?"

"Okay, so Maria's up there – Sixer's safe, no worries about him – but we got a plan to take Cipher out, and we're gonna need all the help we can get."

A murderous glint showed in Wendy's gaze. "If you need help getting up there, I'm all for—"

"Nah, we got that covered. What we need is a large-scale distraction down _here,_ ta keep the Henchies from followin' us up. Sixer an' the rest of us Pines'll go up ourselves an' take care a' things in there."

Wendy stared. "…are you sure you can handle that by yourselves?"

"Yup." Crescent grinned, teeth sharp and shark-like. "You in fer helpin' us with Phase 1?"

"Dude, if it gives me an excuse to sink an axe into that 8-Ball's eyes, I'm in." Wendy matched Crescent's expression. "I'll get McGucket's attention – I don't think he's gonna be too happy with you guys going in there by yourselves, but if it means keeping the Henchies off your back and giving them a few beat-downs in the process, he's gonna be _all over_ that."

"Good. Cuz we're gonna need all the help we can get!"

"Phase 1" was easy enough to grasp and get taken care of, because the Henchmaniacs were _already_ distracted by the townsfolk and their strangely advanced weaponry for such a small town in the 21st century. It was just that now, the distraction was much more focused and much less scattered across the wasteland of a plain that _used_ to be a lush, green valley.

Crescent watched and listened to the chaos as he bounced back to the treeline, making sure that no one followed.

"Where did these humans get these—OW!" A shape-like monster – Hectorgon?– stumbled back as he was shot in the mustache by a blast from one of the bigger guns Stanford and Fiddleford had put together. "This makes no sense! Amorphous, do something about it!"

 _Why do you expect me to do something?!_ What looked like a torn-apart Cubix Cube shifted angrily as the squares of the Henchmaniac's form were hit repeatedly like he was being used for target practice.

 **"FORE!"**

Fiddleford's giant, all-metal version of the Shacktron came barreling down on the two, and he kicked Hectorgon hard enough to send him flying into the barrier around the valley that kept the weirdness in and the normal out. The ripple of energy that ran across the barrier didn't show any cracks, but judging by the way Hectorgon fell limply back to the ground, he was definitely in a world of hurt.

 **"Anybody else wanna piece of me?"** Fiddleford cackled over the built-in loudspeaker, getting attention from more of the monsters.

Crescent rejoined his family and their counterparts at the treeline, grinning at what he'd left behind. "Man, what I wouldn't give ta give some of those bozos a punch in the face." He clenched his fist with a wide grin.

"We'll probably have time for that once we get up there." Stanford looked up at the Fearamid. "Although, it is more likely you will be punching Puppeteer more than anyone else."

 _"Oh,_ I am lookin' forward ta _that_ most of all."

Star peered out around the trees as the Henchmaniacs lunged for the humans who were giving them the most trouble, Wendy and Manly Dan at the forefront. "Everything looks good from here." She looked at Pine. "Do you think we can do this?"

"We have to try," Pine replied. "I don't like the idea of going back. So I'm not going to let that happen." His eyes started to glow an eerie blue.

Sixer gripped the branch he was sitting on as the tree they were in started to crawl across the ground towards the Fearamid. Because Pine was manipulating it and its roots, it looked like the tree had gotten up and was moving of its own accord – even though most sentient trees did not leave a rut in the ground behind them. He watched the others adjust to its movement, then turned his gaze to the chaotic fight, and the Fearamid beyond.

Somehow, despite being used to seeing it, the Fearamid looked more imposing than before.

Sixer tightened his grip on the trunk. _Hang on, Maria._

The Henchmaniacs' shouts and curses had filled the air to such a point that none of them noticed the tree moving and planting itself in the town square, directly under the Fearamid's floating-but-not-floating position. A good thing, so far. Hopefully they wouldn't notice until it was too late.

"You two ready to do this?" Crescent looked down from the highest branch at Pine and Star below him.

The twins nodded.

"Okay. Everybody else, hang on! It's gonna get a bit bumpy!"

Sixer watched his counterparts and their families – as well as Vash and Knives, who had insisted on coming along – brace themselves against the tree as best they could. He just closed his eyes, and breathed in.

When Sixer exhaled, Star and Pine were already starting to make the tree grow bigger.

Gravity lightened by a good fifteen percent as the tree suddenly shot up, becoming thicker at the base and taller than any tree had any good sense to be. The pine needles quickly turned a deep space purple, gaining a glitter effect similar to Star's hair.

"Ooooooh." Mabel plucked a handful of pine needles. "I'm gonna keep these."

"If they stick around after Weirdmageddon," Mabelcorn added.

"They don't?" Maple frowned.

"Well, I'm gonna see if they will." Mabel stuffed the needles into a pocket in her sweater. Mizar did the same.

Sixer looked at them with a curious expression, but said nothing. If they really liked Star's and Pine's work that much, it was likely the two would be doing this a lot more often.

In time, the top of the pine tree reached the expansive bottom of the Fearamid, a little off-center.

Crescent knocked his knuckles against the black brick above his head and grinned. "Good; he hasn't moved these around yet."

And then his arm rippled into a black, fur-like texture, and he ripped the brick out of place. It slipped out of his grip and was sent careening down to the ground before being caught by the pine tree's branches.

"Nice work, kids! Now, climb up! We're goin' in here!" Crescent turned and scrambled up the last part of the tree before disappearing up a ladder that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Some of these bricks are false?" Stanford, sitting next to Sixer, sounded surprised.

"No, they're all real bricks. It's just that certain ones will turn flat when one of us comes into contact with them." Sixer stood up carefully on his branch – it was thicker now than it had been – and started to climb. "We can interact with what his Fearamid contains. We can use that to our advantage when we get in there."

"You mean, you can unchain anyone we might come across?" Sphinx dug his claws into the bark and looked down as Sixer moved past him.

"Exactly."

It had been part of the plan as discussed. And while they did have secondary plans, their first was to make use of this added, momentary ability.

Sphinx nodded. "I should hope there are people to free, then, or else this will not go as well as we wish it to."

"We'll have to see if he removed them before he arrived here," Sixer replied. "Although I doubt that will be the case. He hasn't let his Henchmaniacs take them to their respective locations, and considering his confidence, he likely isn't going to start now."

The ladder climb wasn't something that Sixer remembered ever taking – he was never allowed out beyond the initial assault of weirdness on a dimension, and Cipher had always teleported him back and forth. Star, Pine, and Crescent had made use of the more mundane means of getting from place to place.

Which meant that Crescent knew exactly where he was leading them.

"All right! Next stop, the dungeon! Every human who ever angered the triangle guy, had a bounty on his head, or ever made a deal and turned back around ta make a measly attempt at punching him in the face are all here!"

Crescent's introduction of the long corridor that made up the dungeon he spoke of got a large number of cursing yells from the cells as he and everyone else started climbing up from the hole in the floor where a brick used to be.

Then the prisoners went quiet when they saw _how many_ Pines were coming up.

Star and Pine were the last to join the group as they looked around with wide eyes at the cells that ran down the corridor.

"This is…more extensive than I imagined," Stanford said.

"We've had more in here before," Sixer replied. He looked around at the prisoners in their cells and saw his own face staring back at him multiple times over. The expressions of betrayal and horror on every Ford's face hadn't stung before, but now...

…now he could feel that betrayal right down to the remains of his soul.

"You're going after _children_ now?!" demanded a Ford from one of the cells near them. "What the hell would—"

Crescent slammed his shoulder against the wall next to the cell, and the bars fell to the floor with a loud clatter that caused the voices of the Fords to fall silent.

"We'll go keep any Henchmaniacs still in here distracted," Sphinx told Sixer. "You do as you must." He turned and started running down the hall on all fours.

Star started to follow him, but then Sphinx stopped and gave her a look.

"Stay with your grunkle," Sphinx said. "He is going to need all the help he can get."

Star looked surprised, but she didn't argue. Even if she had _thought_ about forming an argument, Sphinx had already gone down the hall, the rest of his monstrous family following behind.

Sixer walked over to the cell opposite Crescent's and touched the bars, causing them to dissolve.

"You look different," said the young Ford inside. He frowned suspiciously. "Is Cipher doing something different with you?"

Sixer stepped into the opened cell at the same time Crescent stepped into his. " _He_ didn't do anything."

His younger counterpart's frown deepened.

Sixer pulled back a sleeve of his sweater, showcasing the glimmering flame tattoo that Maria's control left as her mark. "I'm not _his_ anymore."

The younger counterpart's eyes widened, and Sixer took advantage of the momentary shock to grab the chains that bound him. They dissolved in a shower of blue sparks, and Sixer stepped back to give his counterpart room to stand up.

"How?" came the harsher question from the young counterpart's cellmate.

"A World Jumper saw what we didn't," Sixer replied. He released the older counterpart, then stepped back and out of the cell. His counterparts followed.

"World Jumpers are myths," said the Ford from Crescent's opened cell.

"Tell _that_ ta Maria," Crescent replied. "She'd probably summon a portal ta prove ya wrong." He paused. "If she wasn't caught by you-know-who right at this moment, anyway."

There was a loud ZAP of electricity from down the hall, and a young woman's scream quickly followed. It was laced with something digital, and glitched multiple times before falling silent.

Sixer visibly flinched, catching his counterparts by surprise. He hadn't done _that_ in their presence before.

"We'd better hurry," Dipper said. "If we wait too much longer, he could do who knows what!"

Sixer nodded. "Pine, Star, as we discussed. If we're going to do as we planned, we need to do so quickly."

The two nodded, then rushed towards other cells and started freeing their grunkle's counterparts.

"Are those Famine and Pestilence's real names?" asked the younger Ford that Sixer had freed.

"They're nicknames!" Mizar skipped over, wearing a journal strapped to her side and holding an 8-Ball in one hand. "The boys are Dipper, and the girls are Mabel. We're Shermie's grandkids." She grinned.

The Ford's jaw dropped. _"Grandkids?"_

Sixer was already moving to the next cell, grateful that he wasn't the one answering those questions.

They needed all the help they could get, and didn't have a lot of time left to them.

Slowly, the Fords in their cells were released, much to their general confusion at first. But then the realization that Sixer _wasn't_ taking them to their deaths hit them, and they quickly went in another direction.

"Why are you doing this?" asked the younger Ford that Sixer had released.

Crescent cracked his knuckles and grinned. "We're startin' Breakout Number 2 right here and now. We'd help ya get home, but the one with the portals is kinda bein' zapped right now, so the best we can do is say 'good luck' an' let ya loose. If you guys could cause a ruckus an' shoot a few Henchmaniacs on the way out, that'd be great, but Cipher's gonna get a left hook from yours truly an' nobody else."

"You really think you can beat him, after working under him?" demanded one of the former prisoners. "Stanley, he's taken over multiple dimensions – the best thing you could possibly do is seal this place off!"

"First, I'm _Crescent,_ an' _that's_ Stanley." Crescent motioned to the counterpart in question, and Stanley bowed theatrically. "Second, ya really think that sealin' off a dimension is _really_ gonna stop him _now_?"

There was no answer.

"We require a momentary distraction, that's all we ask," Stanford spoke up. "Make as much noise as you dare – vandalize, harm, steal – whatever you choose, we don't _care."_

"What about you?" asked another Ford.

"Pretty much the exact same thing," Stan replied with a grin. His mechanical eye, hidden over the last year, was currently exposed and whirring madly. Ford stood next to him, shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother, and looking as serious as he had ever been. "I'm lookin' forward ta seein' the look on their faces when they get what's comin' to 'em! No one takes on four Gravity Fallses at once and gets away with it!"

He paused, blinked his human eye, then looked at his brother. "That's the right term for it, right? Fallses?"

Ford blinked at the question, then shrugged.

The freed, small crowd of counterparts exchanged looks, then rushed past them and scattered down different corridors. Sixer saw more than a few of them pull weapons out from under their coats, primed and ready for the closest thing that looked like an enemy target.

And then they were gone…leaving behind four figures who _weren't_ Fords, and an animal. All of them looked unusually familiar.

"Uncle Stanford?" asked a familiar-looking, broad-shouldered version of Alex. "What's going on here?"

Sixer stared, wide-eyed. This was familiar, almost. This scene had played out in a similar way a long time ago.

A part of him thought that that would have been the last time they saw each other. Apparently not.

"Alex?" Stanford frowned. "I thought you agreed you and Karen were going to stay back in the Shack – and why is Waddles with you?"

Alex blinked, looking confused. "What?" He shook his head. "I – I don't know what you're—"

"Stanford Filbrick Pines."

The three Stanfords present stiffened to attention at the New Jersey drawl that came from the ghostly figure next to Alex, Karen, and the other man – an older, graying man who looked distinctly Pines-ish.

Sixer swallowed visibly. "M-Ma."

Stanford and Ford looked at Sixer sharply while the journal Mizar was carrying rattled its pages. She put a hand against the cover, stilling its movement.

The ghost – who was indeed the ghost of Cassandra Pines – floated forward while Waddles snuffed and waddled over to Star, who looked just as shocked as Sixer was.

But Star recovered almost immediately and launched herself at the pig. "WADDLES! I thought you were – I'm so glad you're okay!"

The pig snuffed happily in response, and was completely fine with being hugged by his human-turned-star fairy.

Sixer did not recover quite as quickly. He hadn't seen this particular specter in a long time. The last time had been…

…it had been when he had thought himself lost.

Cassandra put her hands on her hips. "So? You found a way out?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then sighed and shook his head. "It wasn't me, Ma. It was all Maria."

The fact that he _still_ had marks on his neck and wrists – and likely on his ankles as well – was more than enough proof for that.

"Well, regardless, you're out from under him." Cassandra smiled a little. "You look a lot better, Ford. It's good ta see ya."

Sixer's ears drooped a little, but he nodded. "I didn't think _I'd_ see you again."

Cassandra reached forward with her ghostly fingers and brushed them against his ears. He had been expecting her to feel both extremely hot and cold at once, only to get a feeling of nothing but warmth. "I never thought that I would get to see you, either – _or_ you, don't try to sneak off."

Crescent stiffened, then turned and looked at her with a wide-eyed look. "Uh…hi, Ma."

"Uh-huh. I don't see you for 600 years an' all ya have ta say ta me is _hi?"_ Cassandra folded her arms across her chest. "I'd give ya a good scoldin' fer not showin' me proper manners, but you have ta take care of a certain _problem."_ She nodded pointedly down the hall as another scream came ripping from the throne room.

Sixer winced again.

"Go on an' save yer girl, Ford. We can talk _after_ that problem's been sorted out."

Before Sixer could say a word, Cassandra looked back at the three humans who were with her – Alex, Karen, and…someone Sixer _assumed_ was Shermie.

"All right!" Cassandra barked. "We're gonna keep the world from endin' again an' _this_ time we're gonna win! An' I expect you three—"

Waddles oinked.

"—four ta help me! Let our family take care a' the triangle problem. We got them Henchmaniacs ta beat inta a pulp!"

"But—"

"You got it, Ma," Shermie spoke over Alex. He looked at Sixer. "But I will be expecting answers."

Sixer nodded. He thought as much. His family deserved as much.

Maria would probably see things the same way.

"Get movin'!" Cassandra shouted. "We've got that demon ta beat!"

"Go." Stanford nodded to Sixer. "We'll handle keeping him distracted."

Sixer hesitated, then nodded. "Good luck. You're going to need it." He turned and looked at Crescent.

Crescent gave him a thumbs-up. "We'll be right behind ya."

Sixer met his brother's gaze, then nodded.

Then he turned and ran towards the throne room, leaving the others behind.


	31. Recompense

**You ready to see Cipher die? :3**

 **Chapter 51 – Recompense**

The throne room looked just like Sixer remembered it. The exact same decoration, the exact same furniture.

The giant throne of terrible human agony where the people of his Gravity Falls were entrapped – except for the members of the Zodiac, who were transformed into their tapestries and still hanging from the ceiling.

It was a decoration that Sixer should have been _used_ t o seeing, but seeing it now, Sixer couldn't help but feel the most unease he _ever_ felt.

And then there was Maria.

She was far, far above his head, hanging by her wrists from the same glowing blue chains Cipher always used. There were chains on her ankles as well, keeping her stuck in one place in the air.

And the chest plate of her armor had been completely torn off, leaving her core – a glowing, blue crystal-like sphere – completely exposed.

And it was _sparking_. Sixer got the feeling her core wasn't supposed to do that.

"Maria?"

What had Cipher _done_ to her?

Maria raised her bowed head slightly. It looked like the movement took a lot of energy. "Six?" She winced as her core sparked.

Sixer found one of the chains attached to Maria's ankles and scrambled up it. He wasn't going to dissolve it _yet,_ he had to get the ones attached to Maria's wrists as well.

He could see Maria watching him. The look on her face said she was worried about him.

She didn't think he should be there.

But he needed to be, especially when she looked like _that._

Sixer reached Maria and wrapped an arm around the chain holding her left wrist in place. He reached over and grabbed the chain on her right ankle, causing the blue metal to dissolve. Maria's right leg hung limply in the air.

 _Remember the plan, remember the plan._

"I'm getting you out of here. The others are keeping Cipher and the Henchmaniacs distracted, but I don't know how long that will last."

He knew that his family wasn't going to be all that far behind him, either. They shouldn't be, at any rate.

Maria coughed, spitting out a couple drops of a blue liquid. "R-reckless."

Sixer paused in reaching for Maria's right wrist, then looked her in the eye. "You're too important to let Cipher take you. You know that."

It wasn't reckless when they had a plan and a way to stop Cipher in his tracks.

Not that Maria knew that.

Maria blinked slowly a couple times at that as Sixer grabbed the chain on her right wrist, letting her hand drop as they swung abruptly backwards; Sixer gripped Maria's armored shoulder for support. "C-can't d-do m-m-much. W-weakened. C-core hurt. T-taking e-everything…to not go into s-stasis lock."

Cipher had done a real number on her. But if her _core_ hurt, then…

"He did it?" Sixer asked worriedly, almost panicked. "He didn't – he didn't take—"

"No." There was a fire in Maria's eyes for a moment. "Core t-too strong."

Oh.

 _Thank the Axolotl._

But that meant Maria wasn't going to be of much help to the plan, unless Sixer acted quickly.

"We still need a little help," Sixer said. "You remember, when you summoned those three Pokémon to settle what was happening with my emotions?"

"Y-yeah." Maria nodded, a little shakily.

Sixer tapped against the chains binding her left ankle, forcing him to stand on her foot while hanging onto the chain above their heads. They swung, but Maria didn't seem to mind the added weight of his body too much, especially since he was holding onto the chain wrapped around her wrist. "Do you think you can do it again?"

Sixer didn't know what sorts of allies Maria might summon for this, but if she was picking some of her better-known warriors…even that would help.

Maria frowned at the question. "Sh-should be able to." She reached behind her, visibly opening a small portal in space and pulling out a familiar red and black device with a shaky hand. Sixer reached around her to help hold it steady with one hand as she held one end of the device close to her mouth and took in a deep breath.

"Palkia, Chaos, I-I've got a problem. Dark Arms level problem, m-maybe w-worse. G-gonna black out; t-talk to Sixer t-to get the d-details." Maria let her hand drop, the device seeming to dissipate into the air. "C-can't st-stay awake. G-gotta…recover…"

Palkia was a name Sixer recognized, but Chaos? That was a little more of a vague familiarity. A rumor of a name, perhaps.

Sixer held Maria closer to himself as she went limp and he dissipated the final chain with a flicker of firepower. They started to fall to the floor, Sixer orienting himself so that he was the one to make the impact instead of Maria – she had already taken so much damage; he wasn't about to let her take on more.

Especially with her core exposed as it was. He wrapped his arms around that place, feeling the energy thrumming weakly from the crystal.

Sixer shut his eyes tightly, expecting a painful impact, only for his fall to slow suddenly to a near-stop.

"Star?" Sixer opened an eye.

It was _not_ Star that he saw holding out a hand in order to keep Sixer from colliding with the floor.

It was a two-legged, purple cat-like creature standing in front of a pink and white, dragon-like creature.

Sixer's other eye snapped open as the cat turned his three-fingered paw, bringing Sixer into an upright sitting position and putting him gently on the floor. Sixer still held Maria's body defensively close, and adjusted his grip accordingly so that she wasn't being held like an unresponsive, metal toy.

"Holy _shit,"_ Crescent said from the hallway leading to the opened cells. " _That_ was your plan? Summon _more_ demons?"

The cat creature snorted, but before he could respond, the dragon did, with a deep, reverberating voice that vibrated in Sixer's head.

 _"My name is Palkia, and this is Chaos. We have come at Maria's request because of a dire situation, and I can already sense that there is something wrong here. What is the situation?"_

Sixer remembered this creature – barely. There had been a time when he had been _on_ Palkia's world with Maria, and they had traveled together to his domain to return to human form.

"The demon Bill Cipher – he's brought his weirdness to this dimension," Sixer explained quickly. "The usual way that he could be defeated has been made impossible at this point, and he has near-god-like powers as a result of being allowed to expand his borders. He likely brought the Dark Arms with him, as they have a bounty on Maria's head, and she has been damaged – badly. My family's and my counterparts are doing what they can to keep Cipher and the others distracted while I freed Maria, but I doubt that's going to last for very long. Cipher needs to be weakened, and we can't do that alone."

"We want to get the proper jump on him, but he's gonna be expectin' us." Crescent walked into the room, followed by Star and Pine who both looked at the two creatures with wide eyes.

Wait.

Right, they were technically called Pokémon.

"So, do you two wanna help or not?" Crescent folded his arms across his chest as he stood behind Sixer, Pine and Star moving to their grunkles' right and left.

 _"A demon?"_ The cat-like creature – Chaos – inclined his head. His telepathic voice had a bit more force to it. _"I am sensing a large amount of chaotic energy from this place."_

"That's a result of Cipher's power, considering what he causes," Sixer explained.

 _"Hm. Sixer, was it? Is there a lake nearby, by any chance?"_

Sixer blinked in confusion at the question. "Well, yes, but—"

 _"Good. I believe it is time that I returned to my **origins**." _Chaos gave a wide grin, then disappeared from sight in a flash of energy.

Sixer wasn't sure what Chaos meant by that, but considering his name, he felt that the Pokémon creature was likely going to make himself a formidable opponent.

 _"This situation is indeed grave_." Palkia frowned. _"I can sense the barriers in this dimension weakening already. Maria did well in calling me in."_ He moved closer to Sixer, his family, and Maria, the kitsune curling in on the Reploid a little more protectively.

Then Palkia threw back his head and _howled._

The sound was one that Sixer had heard centuries before, when he had still been whole, but the shrieking sound still caused the fur on his tails to stand up as his ears pulled back. It was a sound that said you did _not_ want to mess with this creature in any way, or face the deadly consequences.

That proved to be true a second later, when dark, rippling portals that almost looked like rifts appeared on either side of Sixer and his family, and all manners of creatures stepped or flew into the throne room. Most of them were gigantic and almost _draconic_ in size and form, and prepared for a fight, but there were a few that were far, far smaller.

"Holy shit," Crescent muttered. "Are these all of Maria's buddies?"

 _"Not even close,"_ Palkia replied. He sounded somewhat amused. _"There are hundreds of us eager to come to her aid if she requires it, but this little problem requires the best of us."_

"Maria!"

Sixer's head turned at the sound of the voice, and he blinked in confusion when he caught sight of a small, rodent-like Pokémon with a thunderbolt tail, running towards him and Maria's unconscious form. His eyes widened when he caught sight of the red bandanna that the creature was wearing about his neck, and the badge that gleamed from where it was pinned to it.

 _That must be…_

"Pika?" Sixer asked. He felt Crescent look at him strangely from behind.

The Pikachu came to a skidding halt in front of Sixer and Maria, looking concerned as he stood up on his hind legs. "Is she all right?"

"It's…hard to say," Sixer replied, looking down at Maria and her exposed core. It wasn't sparking as much as it had been, but it still didn't look like it was completely comfortable in her chest cavity at the moment. "They…the Dark Arms, I think, tried to separate her core and her soul, but failed. The shock of the event forced her unconscious."

Pika's expression contorted from the somewhat-cute concerned expression to a dark anger that made him look even more terrifying. "They're here?"

"They…put a bounty on her head through Cipher," Sixer replied carefully.

There came various growls from the creatures near them.

"Do you think she'd mind if we killed this Cipher guy?" A larger, mouse-like Pokémon with orange fur instead of yellow lashed his tail back and forth.

"If he is willing to deal with the Dark Arms, then he has no honor," spoke up a white, green, and red humanoid Pokémon on Sixer's other side.

 _"What say you, Sixer?"_ Palkia asked. _"As she clearly trusts you, you are likely the person who knows the most about her decisions on the matter."_

Sixer didn't really feel like he did, but at the same time, Maria wasn't currently conscious. He couldn't exactly _ask_ her.

And then he remembered all the times the conversations between himself and Maria turned to how _terrible_ Cipher was when Sixer did or said something that connected back to him.

And he thought he knew what Maria would say.

"She does not care for him. Not after what he did to myself and my family. She has repeatedly declared in my presence that she would like to see him tortured in various ways, be it tearing his eye out or tearing his body apart brick by brick." He paused, then continued, "She was quite angered when we learned that Cipher had repurposed what the man called Cyrus had done in your dimension."

 _That_ got a reaction from the Pokémon – especially Palkia, who growled lowly and loudly.

"Repurposed…." Pika looked disbelieving. "How can someone repurpose what Cyrus did?! I thought she only called the Dark Arms—"

 _"Look at his aura!"_

Sixer's ears twitched in the direction that the telepathic voice seemed to have come from. He turned his head slightly, catching sight of a jackal-like black and blue Pokémon, who was pointing a paw at him and staring at him with wide, red eyes.

 _"I have never seen an aura so chaotic or unbalanced in my life!"_ the creature continued. _"It's almost as though a part of him has been torn out!"_

The Pokémon fell silent. Distantly, Sixer heard the sound of something outside of the room, coming from the doorway he'd run in through moments ago.

Sixer lifted his head sharply, tails stiffening behind him as he set his jaw and his ears tilted forward. "He's coming."

Pika looked at him with an odd expression, and his eyes widened before a narrow-eyed frown set in. He then jumped up on Sixer's shoulder without hesitation, causing Sixer to look at him in surprise.

"You've protected each other," Pika said. "Now it's our turn to protect you both. Cress! Dusk! Make sure these guys stay safe and out of the battle as much as possible!"

 _"Of course."_ A crescent-shape-themed Pokémon colored in purple and yellow flew down and hovered on one side.

A creature rose up from her shadow: black as night and with flowing white hair rising up from a hidden head. _"Like that dream demon's getting anywhere near the Wandering Guildmaster."_

An energy shield of pink and red energy materialized over their heads then, and Sixer let out a surprised gasp as they were suddenly lifted up, forming into a sphere that kept Sixer, his family and Maria suspended midair.

"H-hey!" Crescent yelped. "I thought only Star could do something like this!"

Star sat cross-legged in the air and poked at the bubble. Her finger went through it easily, but it didn't pop. "Huh."

Maria almost seemed to shift slightly in Sixer's arms, and her core relaxed into a steady pulsing.

Pika jumped off Sixer's shoulder and motioned for some assistance. Cress dipped down for a moment, then came back up with a battered piece of metal – the chest plate that was supposed to be covering Maria's currently exposed circuitry.

Pika put the chest plate back into place, but it didn't fit in properly. There were areas where it rose too high, or had been pushed back and left the circuitry exposed. "She must know we're here if she's calmed down. She's probably not going to wake up for a while, though."

Sixer nodded, glad that there was someone here who knew at least a little bit of what was going on with Maria. He didn't take his gaze off the doorway, though.

All of Sixer's tails stiffened the moment he caught sight of a flicker of bright yellow in the doorway, and he hunched over Maria more protectively as Cipher – their old Master himself – came into the room, followed shortly by the Dark Arms.

Crescent put a hand on his shoulder as Pine and Star moved closer to him. The action helped to ground Sixer a little.

They were here, together, and they were still free of Cipher's grasp. And now they had friends of Maria's here to help them fight. They were going to get through this.

 _"THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR TRUSTING A MULTIVERSAL **ANOMALY** WITH DOING MY DIRTY WORK," _Cipher snapped as he entered the room. Right behind him were two equally-giant, dark figures with elaborate horns and robes covering most of their bodies. Only the glowing red eyes were visible under their hoods. Sixer could see that one of them had a crystal forearm that was the same color as Maria's core.

Maria had done _that?_

 _"FIRST I FIND OUT FROM THE WORLD JUMPER THAT YOU GAVE ME FOUR GRAVITY FALLS **IN ONE DIMENSION,** AND **NOW** THEY'VE MADE OFF WITH ALL MY MERCHANDISE! IT'S GOING TO TAKE FOREVER TO—"_

Cipher cut himself off and stared.

The line of giant Pokémon and Sixer and his family in their little bubble stared back.

The Dark Arms recovered first. The one with a crystalized arm raised it and gestured. **_"The World Jumper's allies!"_**

The alien's voice was just as paradoxical in tone as Sixer remembered: smooth and rough, oil and rock. It sent a shudder down his spine.

 _"AND MY PUPPETS!"_ Cipher sounded _amused._ _"HA! I MAY JUST BE ABLE TO SALVAGE THIS AFTER ALL! NOW TO GET MY HANDS ON THEIR STRINGS AND—"_

Something very large and seemingly made of _water_ crashed through the side of the throne room, tearing open a giant hole in the brickwork as it screamed a terrible noise that made Sixer's ears flatten.

Crescent, Star and Pine winced at the sound as well, then stared in shock as the giant water monster lunged for the Dark Arms alien with the crystallized arm and bit down, effectively chomping the alien _in half_. Dark blood scattered in an arc, staining the water only for a moment before it swirled and _bubbled,_ becoming clear again.

 ** _-YOU HAVE DEFILED LIVES. IT IS TIME YOU PAID THE PRICE-_**

Sixer winced at the dark, chaotic voice that echoed in his head, sending chills down his spine and causing the fur on his tails to explode outward. There was something…oddly familiar about the voice, but he couldn't quite—

 _"Chaos?!"_ Pika exclaimed.

 _That_ was what the creature had meant by "returning to his roots?"

Just what kinds of allies _were_ these creatures?

 _"Follow the chaotic being's lead!"_ bellowed a large red creature that looked like it had been formed from lava flow. _"Show no mercy to those who have dared to destroy the lives of so many!"_

The roars that answered back shook the throne room as the Pokémon charged the remaining Dark Arms and Cipher, who looked like he was trying to take stock of the situation and figure out how to turn it in his favor.

It only took the demon a few seconds to come to his decision.

Cipher screeched, growing larger in size and turning into a pyramidal form with more arms and _teeth_ between each level. **_"LOOKS LIKE I'VE GOT SOME CREATURES TO TURN INTO CORPSES!"_**

"Be careful!" Sixer called. "My counterparts and I don't call him a demon for nothing!"

 _"We have fought Cyrus and his twisted world before,"_ Cress replied, hovering closer to the bubble. _"How much more of a danger is this Bill Cipher?"_

"Let's just say he makes this Cyrus guy look like a cakewalk," Crescent replied.

Sixer tightened his grip on Maria. "I have seen him warp space and time with a snap of his fingers. Warping matter and changing any place or _person_ as he sees fit isn't a great feat of strength for him." He shook his head, bending over Maria again as though protecting her from some unseen force. "He can change your very _soul_ if you're not careful."

 _"Worse than the Dark Arms and Cyrus indeed,"_ Dusk intoned from Sixer's left. _"One could say that they are combined into one being within him."_

 _"And you say that he has done this to you?"_ Cress spoke up with worry.

Sixer reached up and pulled down the neck of his sweater, exposing the flame tattoos. Visible underneath them were the triangular scars that Cipher's chains had left behind. "He did it to all four of us."

Pine and Star looked at the creatures around them with cautious expressions as Cress and Dusk suddenly looked murderous.

Pika's eyes widened sharply. "Holy Arceus."

Dusk growled lowly. _"He did this to children. He should not be allowed to continue to live."_

There was a loud shriek from the battle. Sixer looked over and is eyes widened when he saw the second Dark Arms fall, torn to pieces by the lava-like Pokémon and a creature that looked like a giant, green wingless snake of a dragon.

Cipher screamed in multiple voices and reached out, and then the battle started to tilt in another direction as he clawed and bit through the creatures. The Pokémon quickly started falling back, not a true match for the might of the chaotic demon who had caused all this trouble in the first place.

"You really think that that deal thing is gonna help us get a hit in there?" Crescent asked as the dragon-snake pulled back.

"It's the only chance we have," Sixer replied quietly.

Pika frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Cipher functions on deals. He did _not_ make one when he changed us, which means he has a _debt_ hanging over his head that he has to repay." Sixer smiled a little, but the look on his face was grim. Almost crazed, even. "And he has to pay it back _with interest._ "

Pika's eyes widened.

Crescent cracked his knuckles. "Whelp. Let's see if this works." He stepped out of the bubble and dropped to the ground, shifting as he went. He turned black, then lit up with a multitude of brilliant green spots as all the eyes he had ever gained opened.

And then Crescent's form started to _grow_ as he ran towards the fight.

Sixer frowned. "What—"

"Grunkle Crescent can ignore physics sometimes," Star said. "I think it's a thing that people like him can do?"

That was not something Sixer had been expecting, but seeing Crescent get as big as Cipher and punch the demon in the eye was something he thought he'd _never_ get to see.

 _FRRZT!_

 _"GAH! MY EYE!"_

Crescent jumped back, one fist actually smoking as Cipher closed his eye and put a couple hands over the closed lid as his other hands lashed out in pain. Crescent's form still looked humanoid to an extent, but it was constantly shifting its features to the point that it was hard to tell what Crescent's face currently looked like, much less what his form's true shape was.

Chaos' water form looked up from where he was gnawing on Cipher's leg. **_–HMM. INTERESTING-_**

 **"Interesting nothing,"** Crescent scoffed back in an equally distorted voice. **"He's getting what's coming to him."**

 _"I GIVE YOU YOUR POWER AND YOU PUNCH ME IN THE EYE?_!" Cipher shrieked, opening his eye again and glaring at Crescent. His eye looked highly irritated now, veins visible and pulsing.

Crescent didn't say anything, instead slamming _two_ fists against Cipher and causing him to screech again.

 _FRRZT!_

 ** _-YOU WERE CHANGED THROUGH HIS POWER-_** Chaos drew back. **_–IT SEEMS THE UNIVERSE AGREES THAT IS HIS WEAKNESS-_**

Sixer's ears perked up at that.

They were _right._ Cipher's uneven interaction with them had caused him to owe them something.

They were owed a debt.

 _And it was time it was paid._

Star popped out of the bubble, then flew around and grabbed Pine before heading over to the fight.

 **"Weakness, huh?"** Sixer got the impression that Crescent was grinning. **"That's got to be the best thing that I've ever heard! Time to use this freak like the punching bag he is!"**

"GRUNKLE STAN, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Sixer jumped at Star's yell, and turned his head just as she shot past Crescent and dropped Pine on his shoulder, glowing with bright starlight so much that it hurt to look at her.

"THIS IS FOR PIEDMONT, YOU JERK!"

Star swung around in front of Cipher as Crescent ducked, and the stream of starlight behind her slammed into Cipher, sending him crashing into the wall. A moment later, deep green vines seemed to grow out of cracks between the bricks in the floor and the wall, wrapping themselves quickly around Cipher's form before he could so much as move out of the way.

"For our dimension!" Pine, his eyes glowing bright blue with power, clenched his fists suddenly as he gritted his teeth.

The vines around Cipher tightened sharply suddenly, thickening until they were as thick around as Palkia's neck, turning brown and hardening into what looked like large tree trunks.

Cipher struggled against his bonds, arms and legs flailing. _"WH-WHAT IS THIS?! I MADE YOU! YOU CAN'T JUST DO THIS TO ME!"_

A large blast of red-gold flames suddenly shot past the crowd of Pokémon and slammed into Cipher's eye, exploding into a five-star shape as he shrieked.

Sixer lowered his hand, gaze hard as he glared at Cipher as he shook and writhed while Pine quickly grew more bonds. "For my family."

He wasn't going to be left out of this. Not when Cipher owed him, too.

Dusk chuckled darkly. _"Go teach him his lesson. The Wandering Guildmaster will be kept safe, I assure you."_

Sixer paused at the creature's words, then nodded and moved around Maria's unconscious form and closer to the edge of the bubble, leaving her lying suspended behind him. Then he pushed himself out through the bubble and somersaulted once before landing on the head of the green Chinese dragon-like Pokémon.

 _"I can get you close but I dare not get within reach,"_ the creature said.

"That's fine," Sixer replied. He prepared himself for a leap off the Pokémon's head as the flames that were on Cipher died and Crescent went in again.

 **"I've been looking forward to this for a long time,"** Crescent snarled, grabbing one of Cipher's flailing arms. He yanked it out of its socket, then whacked Cipher in the eye with it as yellow-black energy sparked from where the arm had been torn out.

Star landed on Crescent's shoulder next to Pine. The dragon Pokémon flew up at the same time, letting Sixer leap off and onto Crescent's shoulder before retreating again.

Star took off again, flying high above their heads and gathering starlight on her hands before holding them up above her head and throwing them down in Cipher's direction. "This is for all the stuff you made us do!"

A rumble of thunder increased into a loud roar, and a wall exploded. In that explosion, a _meteor_ came flying in and slammed into Cipher and the wall he was pinned up against. Cracks appeared in the wall, but it held, even as cracks appeared in Cipher's form and caused him to shriek even _more_ loudly.

 _"HOW DARE YOU! I DON'T DESERVE THIS KIND OF TREATMENT!"_

 **"Yeah, you do,"** Crescent growled as Pine started motioning again, causing more vines to appear and grow _into_ the cracks in Cipher's form, causing the demon to whine and make other noises of discomfort and pain. **"This is nothing compared to what we went through. Sixer."**

Sixer looked up at his brother's face as he turned to look at the kitsune standing on his shoulder.

 **"How hard can you hit this freak?"**

Sixer didn't even need to consider the question. _"Hard."_

Maria had talked about pushing him to his limit in practice, and considering the amount of energy he _had…_

Fire started to gather, starting with Sixer's hands and the tips of his tails, then spreading up his arms and tails and coating his torso in burning, red-gold flames.

Cipher struggled, trying to do something as his entire form flickered, but then Palkia slammed a foot into the ground and caused a rip in space to suddenly appear across Cipher's middle for a moment. The flickering stopped a moment later.

 _"WH-WHAT THE—"_

 _"Your powers are not yours to use, Cipher,"_ Palkia snarled. _"They have been taken from you, as you took them from others."_

 _"YOU DON'T HAVE THE POWER TO-"_

 _"I am a_ god _in my dimension. Do not say what I can and cannot do."_

Sixer barely heard them, concentrating as he was on his own energy, pouring everything he dared into the flames that now covered his body.

This was payback for _everything_ Cipher had done to them, starting from the moment he had strung them up until now. Cipher had not repaid, and now it was time that he faced the consequences.

When Sixer felt as though he'd gathered enough, his eyes snapped open as he forced all the fire into a large sphere in front of himself, holding onto it with clawed hands that dug into the fire, gripping it in an impossible feat of physics.

Sixer took in a breath, then squeezed the ball of flames sharply, baring his fangs in a snarling roar. The sound spoke of pain, of anger. And of what he hoped was impending triumph against the monster that was the receiving point for all the fury that Sixer had.

The resulting _beam_ of fire and light that shot out of the large sphere as Sixer shrank it down hit Cipher right in the eye and leapt onto the vines, eating at them greedily and slipping into Cipher's insides.

 _"EEEEEEEYAAAAAAA! IT BURNS!"_

Sixer finished with the sphere of flames just as Star unleashed another barrage of meteors on Cipher's thrashing, burning body. Spots appeared in Sixer's vision; he shook his head in order to clear them out so that he could focus on watching Cipher suffer.

Crescent took a step closer and leaned down a little, a large, sharp-toothed grin appearing on his black, feathery face between sets of glowing green eyes. Then he lifted a foot and slammed it down as a claw, then a hammer-like shape, onto Cipher's bulging eye.

The high-pitched _squeal_ that followed made Sixer wince as Cipher lashed beneath Crescent's foot, screaming something incomprehensible as his form shifted through different colors, different shapes, before becoming a large red triangle.

He reached up with an angered scream. _"PINES!"_

 **"Die,"** Crescent snarled back, pushing once more against the eye.

Something audibly snapped in Cipher, and he stiffened suddenly before flashing gold and scattering into smaller pieces, which fell into the fire and caused the flames to suddenly explode upward in gold-red fireworks before falling back among the vines.

Crescent pulled his foot back quickly and started shifting downwards, the feathers flattening out into something more familiar as Sixer and Pine slid off his shoulders and landed on the black brickwork floor. Star landed near them, looking tired but very much satisfied with her work.

Chaos moved closer to the flames and lifted himself up to inspect the large bonfire. **_–I DO NOT SENSE HIS PRESENCE-_**

The entire throne room shook suddenly, causing Sixer to look up as more black spots started to dance across his vision.

The Fearamid was starting to come apart and fly upward, brick by brick, into the rift that was torn into the sky.

"We…we did it." Sixer blinked with a blank expression. He felt numb, like this wasn't actually happening.

 _But it is,_ a small part of him said. _Cipher's gone. He won't be coming back._

 _You're free of him._

The black spots in Sixer's vision increased, and he swayed on his feet as he suddenly realized that he had used a lot more energy than he'd thought when attacking Cipher. His mind was growing fuzzy…he was so…tired….

As Sixer fell back, he came into contact with something soft, and felt something rumbling beneath him, vibrating into his very bones and giving him a feeling that he was…safe, somehow.

Another one of Maria's Pokémon? He couldn't think of which one it might be.

Cress moved into his vision above him. _"You did well, Sixer. Rest. You will need to recover your strength."_ She pressed her nose against his chest, causing a soothing pulse of energy to pass through him.

Sixer sighed; his eyes felt a lot heavier than they had been.

 _"Maria is safe. Sleep, Sixer."_

With that comment, Sixer's eyes slowly closed as his body relaxed to the thrumming coming from beneath him, sinking deeper into the softness as he lost consciousness.

 **Change in POV**

Entei shifted as Sixer went completely limp on his back, then leapt down towards the ground below as the Fearamid was sucked into the rift in the sky high above. The large, dog-like Jhoto Legendary looked around at the red sky, the destroyed trees, and the ruined buildings that stood in the distance and snarled as he landed on the ground.

A slim, feminine Pokémon wearing a white dress landed lightly on the ground next to him, holding Star in her arms. The fairy child stirred slightly, and the Pokémon stroked her hair in response.

 _"Sleep, sweet child of summer and stars,"_ the Gardevoir murmured. _"You have done well."_

Star stirred again, but then relaxed slowly before abruptly going limp as a large, dinosaur-like Pokémon with giant leaves for wings landed next to them, Pine and Crescent sitting on its back.

"They're okay?" Pine spoke up instantly.

 _"They're fine,"_ the Gardevoir replied. Other Pokémon followed with the rest of the Pines, including Vash, Knives, and the townsfolk from Sixer's dimension, who were all unconscious after the throne had collapsed. _"Simply exhausted."_

Crescent grunted as Cress came down, Pika on her back and the bubble containing Maria directly behind her. "I'm tired, too, but I haven't completely blacked out."

A shockwave suddenly blasted out of the sky and across the landscape, turning the sky blue and restoring the forest and the town in the distance back to what they were supposed to look like.

"So that's what it's like when he's gone," Pine said in amazement. His eyes seemed to grow heavy, but he forced them to stay open as much as possible. "I…think I used more energy than I thought keeping those vines in place…."

Crescent patted Pine's head between his branch antlers. "I think we'll be okay now, kid. Takin' a nap doesn't sound like all that bad of an idea, actually."

"A little rest would do us all some good, I think," Stanford agreed as he slipped off the back of an orange dragon with what looked like a pair of antenna on the top of his head. "The last Shack should still standing, and I doubt it's very far from here. While getting us all inside might prove to be a bit difficult, I'm sure we'll be able to manage." He turned to face Palkia, who was standing tall behind the rest of them. "Thank you for coming to our aid as quickly as you did. I'm not sure that Sixer and his family would have been able to stand a chance otherwise."

Palkia bowed his head in response. _"It was the least we could do; Maria has left us in debt to her more times than I think she realizes. And if assisting you here means that there will be less of a chance of this happening on other worlds, then that is a very good reason to intervene. Even now I can sense the ripples across space that this event has caused; this monster's facets have weakened greatly from this one event alone."_

 _"Which means that there's less of a chance of him succeeding or even getting as close as he did here,"_ Chaos added as he landed on the ground, now devoid of his water form. His purple tail lashed back and forth. _"Now, how many of you are planning to stay?"_

"Stay?" Stanford repeated in confusion.

 _"Some of us would like to be near Maria when she wakes. I want to know how many are certainly planning on it and who would be all right with going back."_ Chaos turned to look at the large group of Pokémon. _"Because I doubt that the people here would appreciate seeing some of us nearby."_

The large green Chinese dragon-like Pokémon huffed. _"I know, I know. We'll let the other Legends know about what happened here; maybe Aurora will stop by for a visit or something."_

There was a bright flash, and a large number of the large, draconic Pokémon were gone, leaving Palkia as the largest creature still standing over them.

 _"Take your time recovering,"_ Palkia said. _"You have more than earned a long rest."_

And then the being of space was gone.


	32. Recovery

**Woot! Christmas is coming on Tuesday, but I'm not going to do a special chapter posting then I don't think - unless I decide to change my feeling about it rather abruptly Christmas morning!**

 **NBoss01 - I had considered doing something with the Zodiac early on, but then figured Cipher would be much too strong for the confrontation to end like that. That, and** **I felt the fight was a much better ending to Cipher than just people standing in a circle and holding hands.** **Besides, Stanley got to punch Cipher in the face. Why not let the Pines have a piece of him? :3**

 **Chapter 32 – Recovery**

Sixer came back to the waking world slowly, the comforting hold of sleep gradually letting go of his senses.

"Nnngh."

He still felt tired, but a grumbling in his stomach told him that he needed something else besides continued rest.

His eyes flickered open with some difficulty and focused on what appeared to be a wooden ceiling. His eyes closed again after a moment. He didn't feel like getting out of bed – his limbs felt like heavy, immovable weights.

It took him a moment to remember he was back in the Shack.

 _…wait. Back? Why—_

Then his memories of where he'd been last came back at once.

 _The Fearamid. Cipher. Crescent crushing the monster underfoot._

Sixer's eyes snapped open, and he started to scramble up into a sitting position, but his arms shook under his weight and gave out in seconds, causing him to collapse against the bed he was lying on.

 _I have to make sure._

Searching fingers quickly checked his wrists, his neck.

No chains. No collar.

 _And not only that, but…._

Sixer sighed in relief, his body relaxing from its tense state. "It wasn't a dream."

"I should hope that it wasn't!"

Sixer's ears twitched at the sound of the perky voice, and he blinked in surprise as something pink and round moved into his vision.

"Because if it was, then we'd all be in trouble!" the creature chirped. "And besides, Cress and Dusk were both present in physical form, so it couldn't have been one anyway."

Sixer rolled from his side onto his back, putting a hand to his forehead and smiling shakily. "You have no idea how much of a relief that is for me."

The creature – a Pokémon, Sixer was sure of it now – hummed, her voice taking on a minor tone. "If that creature was worse than Cyrus, then yes." Her voice suddenly shifted to being perky again. "You really used up a lot of energy back there! I'm amazed that you've only been knocked out for a day!"

Sixer blinked at that. "A _day?"_ He started to push himself up into a sitting position again, but the Pokémon pushed him back down against the bed without much effort.

The Pokémon nodded – which was odd, considering that her entire body looked like one large, pudgy sphere. "You all tuckered yourselves out. In fact, you're the first one to wake up, which is surprising! I'd have thought that you would have woken up last, since you used as much energy as Maria normally does in life-or-death situations!"

 _That_ name got Sixer pushing himself upright again. "Where's Maria? Is she still—"

The Pokémon pushed Sixer back down. "She's right over there." She pointed towards something that was barely out of his line of vision.

Sixer turned over onto his side so that he could follow where the Pokémon was pointing.

There, lying on a cot near the window, was Maria's unconscious form. Sometime between Weirdmageddon and Sixer's awakening, she had shifted back to her clothes from her armor.

The only way Sixer knew that could have happened is if Maria had switched it back herself. Did _that_ mean…?

"She hasn't woken up yet," the Pokémon said, as though reading Sixer's mind. "I don't know how her body works, but I think Vash said that when she's like that it means she's recovering her energy and that everything else is a-ok."

Sixer blinked, considering the Pokémon's words as an idea slipped into his mind. "She and I both have Flash Fire. I can—"

"Nope!" The Pokémon looked at him disapprovingly. "You still have to recover your strength! I'm not about to let a patient of mine drain himself just when he's starting to recover." Her expression softened. "And besides, we've already done everything we can for Maria; all we can do now is wait."

Sixer's ears drooped, one of them collapsing against the pillow under his head.

The Pokémon's expression softened. "I know you want to help her, but right now you have to help yourself first." She patted him on top of his head. "I'll go let the others know you're awake, but you'd better not try to get out of bed while I'm gone, all right? I'll be back with some company and a meal for you."

The Pokémon waddled out of the room, Sixer's eyes following her as she went. At the same time, he noticed that there were three other beds in the room, each one with a sleeping form curled under the blankets.

It didn't take too long for Sixer to realize that they were the other members of his family, all deep in sleep themselves.

 _Destroying him…must have taken more energy than we all thought._

Considering that Cipher was a being of pure energy – supposedly, considering that they _did_ destroy him – it would take a lot of energy to end him.

That, and they had thrown everything they'd had at him.

He heard the sound of pattering feet outside the room, causing Sixer's ears to twitch and his eyes to move to the doorway just as Vash came skidding in with a grin of relief on his face.

"You're okay!" Vash plopped down onto the floor, crossing his legs over each other as he grinned widely at Sixer.

"I…suppose I am," Sixer replied.

"Hey." Vash put a hand on Sixer's shoulder, his grin turning into a smaller, but reassuring smile. "That took a lot of bravery, what you did back there. While I don't normally condone seeing others killed…I think what happened had to happen. Maria would probably agree – and probably will, when she wakes up and starts asking about it." He looked over at Maria's sleeping form.

Sixer frowned. "You were watching?"

"After we'd kicked around the Henchmaniacs a little while," Vash admitted. "It was _really awesome,_ seeing you guys turn him to dust like that! And then the throne fell to pieces and those creepy tapestries turned back into people and—"

"They _turned back?!"_ Sixer had _not_ been expecting to hear that.

"They did."

Sixer turned his gaze to the bedroom's doorway and caught sight of Stanford.

"As soon as Cipher is defeated, his damage is usually reversed." Stanford stepped into the room, looking at Sixer with a grim expression. "However, considering that the townsfolk from your dimension are currently _here_ and were not returned to their dimension…I fear the worst. I'm sorry."

Sixer's ears drooped, and he turned his gaze away from his counterpart. "I'd…suspected as much. Dimensions can only handle so much chaos before the changes become more permanent. I…doubt that I'm going to be able to see our home dimension in a whole state ever again."

Stanford nodded a little. "I believe it goes without saying that you are more than welcome to stay here. You deserve a place to rest, especially after everything you have gone through."

Sixer's gaze flicked up to Stanford, and he nodded. "Thank you."

Stanford was about to say something else when someone else entered the room.

"I've got _breakfast!"_ Mabel appeared in Sixer's line of vision, carrying a tray with _something_ that smelled delicious.

Vash helped Sixer up into a sitting position, propping him up against the pillow at the head of the bed. His tails slowly rearranged themselves under the covers so that they wouldn't feel so uncomfortable, but they felt as heavy as his human limbs did.

Mabel put the tray on the bed as the pink Pokémon came back into the room, Pika riding on top of her head with a serious expression. The tray was covered in pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon and had a glass of orange juice in the corner. "Here we are!"

Sixer's stomach growled loudly at the sight of the food. It took some effort, but he lifted a hand and grabbed a piece of bacon and started slowly gnawing away at it.

"I probably should be surprised that you're awake, but knowing Maria, I'm not." Pika hopped off the other Pokémon's head and landed at the foot of Sixer's bed. "That blast you set off looked a lot like something Maria probably would have done, and she definitely would have blacked out afterwards. Have you been picking up things from her?"

Sixer's ears twitched at the Pikachu's question. He noticed that Stanford and Mabel didn't bat an eye at the fact that the creature was _speaking;_ he supposed that they had gotten used to him, or had likely seen stranger.

"Maria's been teaching me techniques to allow me to control my abilities. Before…I didn't use them often, and when I did…the results were…quite explosive." He rubbed his right wrist almost absently, causing Pika's expression to darken.

"I see." The Pokémon's voice was short and clipped. "I'm glad we took care of _that_ problem." He watched for a moment as Sixer finished the piece of bacon he had been working on, then started in on the next one. "I can't help but get the feeling that you recognized me back there. You definitely looked a lot more comfortable near us."

Sixer paused at the question, a half a piece of bacon in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed before answering. "I came across your dimension in the past before…all this." He motioned to the fox ears on his head. "Something about the way I traveled between dimensions resulted in me transforming into the creature you know as a Vulpix; I met Maria not long after, and she provided passage for me into the next dimension when she crossed over to the human side of your world. Because I was being hunted then, I was going by the name of Six Paws."

Pika looked surprised. " _You're_ the guy she traveled to the Spacial Rift with?"

Sixer nodded. "She came to that realization very quickly herself. She has told me that she considers me one of your number, which…I admit, isn't a bad thing."

Pika blinked again, then smirked and chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not. But that doesn't mean you have to be formal with me, got it? I may be considered the official leader of our guild right now, but I agree a lot with what Maria says and does, too." He patted Sixer on the arm. "Now, you'd better get your strength back, right?"

Sixer nodded slightly in return, smiling a little before he returned to his breakfast, quickly devouring the next piece of bacon and an egg. He was starting to get some strength back – or maybe his hunger was driving him.

Someone on one of the nearby beds shifted slightly. "Is that bacon I smell?"

Sixer looked up as Crescent pushed himself into an upright position and looked over in his direction. A sly look crossed the kitsune's face, and he promptly grabbed his last piece of bacon and stuffed it into his mouth.

Crescent's expression contorted into annoyance at the sight. "Hey!"

"Hang on! I can fix this!" Mabel scrambled out of the room as Stanford looked at Crescent with an amused expression.

"I didn't think you'd be waking up so soon, either," Stanford commented.

Crescent grunted. "I'm used ta expendin' that much energy at once. So long as I get some meat, I'll be fine. Just don't give me anythin' _raw._ "

Sixer started cutting his eggs to pieces and ate them in small stacks he stabbed with his fork. "Something tells me there may be a lot more of this downstairs, Crescent. You're going to be fine."

As though Sixer had said the magic words, Mabel reappeared in the doorway with another tray, this one loaded with twice as much bacon and eggs as Sixer's breakfast.

Crescent perked up immediately when he caught sight of the food, and he licked his lips. "Now that's more like it!" As soon as his breakfast was in front of him he started grabbing the bacon and stuffing it into his mouth like a man who had gone without it for too long.

Stanford shook his head at the sight, then looked back over at Sixer as the kitsune continued clearing off his plate. "Just so that you know, all of you have been confined to bed rest for the next few days. The Pokémon have experience with dealing with Maria after she's expended a large amount of energy, it seems, and they intend to transfer that experience over to you."

"Which means that you're definitely not going to be leaping out of bed like nothing happened," Pika added, nodding in agreement.

 _"Bed rest?"_ Crescent snorted. "You really think that you're gonna keep me in here?"

"I've tied Maria to her bed before," Vash spoke up suddenly. "And I'm willing to do it again." He frowned at Crescent. "We can take turns making sure you guys don't sneak out of the room, too, if we have to."

Crescent huffed and folded his arms across his chest, leaving his now-cleared tray open for Mabel to grab. "You're really planning on keeping us in here, huh?"

"At least for a couple of days," Pika replied. "Maria might be able to recover fast, but we don't know how quickly you can yet."

"That's understandable," Sixer conceded, nodding.

They knew what they were doing concerning his health. Sixer wasn't about to argue against them.

"You guys aren't just gonna be sitting around and doing nothing, though!" Mabel spoke up. "We've got tons of books and movies to distract you with!"

Sixer blinked in surprise. "R-really?"

Mabel nodded vigorously in response, grinning. "Yeah!"

"Thankfully, when I was launched into the portal, Stanley didn't sell off my collection of fictional works," Stanford said with a slight smile. "Considering that you've no doubt been unable to actually sit down and read for some time, perhaps rereading a little won't hurt."

Sixer's ears flicked sideways a little at the thought, blinking with a somewhat wide-eyed fashion. Crescent looked surprised as well, but not as much as Sixer was.

"I…I can't help but feel like this is a bit much," Sixer said finally, bowing his head a little. "I-I mean, I appreciate everything you're doing, but…I'm just not used to this."

Pika's expression shifted a somber one at that while the pink, round Pokémon looked concerned.

Stanford and Vash exchanged looks while Mabel frowned.

"Grunkle Sixer, you're gonna have to get used to it!" Mabel declared. "Maria said we're gonna smother you guys in kindness, and that's exactly what we're gonna do! So there!"

Sixer blinked in surprise at that while Pika's expression shifted to a grin.

The mouse Pokémon chuckled. "That sounds like Maria, all right. She'd pamper everybody with kindness when given the chance. You'd better get used to it, Sixer." He patted Sixer's arm.

"I know, but it's…difficult."

"We've been taking it slow," Vash said. "And I think your position is pretty prime for getting a lot at once."

"Definitely!" Mabel agreed.

 **Time Break**

The promise of watching videos and reading books was all well and good, but sleep was still the most important thing they needed to be doing. As a result, Sixer ended up drifting in and out of rest over the course of the day, and when he awoke later in the late afternoon, he wasn't surprised to see someone standing over him.

The fact that it was someone who _didn't normally live in Gravity Falls_ took him a little by surprise.

Sixer frowned, still blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Shermie?"

"Hey, little brother." Shermie leaned on his elbows, which were resting on his knees. He was sitting on a chair next to the head of the bed. He took more after Ma than he and Crescent ever did. "That was some light show you put on; you feelin' okay?"

"…well, my legs feel like lead and my head's full of fuzz, but I think I'm okay." Sixer's ears twitched.

"Besides the whole…" Shermie motioned to Sixer's head. The fox ears twitched when Shermie's hand got close.

Sixer moved his gaze away from his brother. "I became accustomed to those a long time ago. As far as I am aware, there is no reversing it without…consequences."

Likely death, considering how _long_ Sixer had been alive now.

Shermie's expression became more somber. "I see. I guess my grandkids are in the same boat."

Sixer glanced over at Star and Pine. The two had awoken briefly earlier, but it looked like they had fallen asleep again. He looked back at Shermie. "Yes, unfortunately."

"Ma said you made a deal with a demon to start this whole thing off?"

Sixer sighed at the question and ran a hand down his face. "He tricked me, claiming himself to be a muse, but yes. I made a deal with him, and built something _he_ said would help me with my…my research, only to end up building a doomsday device. It was…not my best decision."

The glint in Shermie's eyes suggested he had been prepared to scold his brother, but at Sixer's admittance his expression softened. "You didn't bring the kids into this on purpose."

"No." Sixer's response was immediate. "I was on the other side of the portal, attempting to stop him by building a weapon. I was there for thirty years, during which time Crescent was working to bring me back. Star and Pine just…happened to be in Gravity Falls when I returned, and they'd already run into Cipher without my direct involvement."

"Direct?"

"…I learned later that the boy named _Gideon Gleeful_ summoned him using research that I had hidden in my less-than-sane state."

Sixer's words were muttered, but Shermie still caught them. The still-human member of the family sighed and put his head in his hands. He shook his head.

Sixer watched him with a tired expression. He didn't have much energy to feel much other than a tired, heavy feeling that settled in his chest and caused the ache of his missing third to make itself known.

Shermie sighed heavily, and looked at Sixer. "Your other yous filled me in on what's going on. I…I wish the kids didn't have to deal with this too."

"I've felt the same," Sixer replied quietly. "This was my fault, not theirs."

Shermie lightly bopped him between the ears. Sixer winced. "As much as it was, it was that demon's fault more than anyone else's. If he hadn't thought a' trickin' ya, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"That doesn't change what happened, Shermie."

"No, no it doesn't. But the problem's gone now, an' we're gonna settle down an' not worry about that demon comin' back an' makin' things worse." Shermie looked his brother in the eye. "Ya get me? He's not a problem, so don't you go thinkin' about him or anythin' related ta him. Just rest up; Ma's gonna want ta talk to ya when you can get outta bed."

Sixer's ears perked up around Shermie's hand. He looked at his brother in surprise.

"You heard me." Shermie gave his brother a knowing grin. "Somethin' tells me you're gonna get a lot of visitors between now an' then, an' yer gonna need all the strength you can get from sleepin'. You more than earned it."

Shermie ruffled Sixer's hair, his hand settling right behind Sixer's ears as he did. Sixer's eyes fluttered shut at the contact.

He drifted back to sleep with a slight rumble in his chest, and a lightened feeling in his heart.


	33. Familiar Faces

**Chapter 33 – Familiar Faces**

After a day of rest, Sixer felt a little better. His limbs had more energy to them and felt less like heavy weights – tails included. He still didn't feel like moving around very much, but at least he was a little more awake and alert.

But that didn't mean he had been expecting a visitor when he first woke up in the morning, much less have that visitor be a certain redhead.

Sixer yawned and blinked. "Wendy?"

The look on her face shifted. Was that a flicker of surprise on her face? Had she been expecting him to wake up?

Before Sixer could frown and ask what was going on, the tray of breakfast Wendy was carrying was put down on the bed far enough from Sixer's head that he could sit up without knocking it over.

He watched Wendy move to the window, then sat up slowly in order to see what she was looking at. He frowned when he saw her looking at Maria with an unreadable expression.

"How did she do it?"

Sixer blinked at the muttered question. Was Wendy directing that at him or towards herself?

"How the _hell_ did she see what your counterparts didn't?" Wendy turned and looked at Sixer with an expression that was almost haunted.

Sixer frowned a little at the question and mulled over the possible answers. When Wendy's gaze went back to Maria's unconscious form, he said quietly, "She has experience being trapped like I was, and she knew that there were some things that my counterparts and I would never do willingly. _How_ exactly I was trapped was an educated guess that proved to be correct."

He watched Wendy for a moment, then pulled the tray towards him on the bed. It was down by his knees; he wasn't about to reach down _that_ far in order to eat his breakfast.

"What did she do to…to get you away from him?"

Sixer paused and considered the question again. Would Maria be all right with...?

"I'm not sure if Maria would be all right with me answering that plainly," Sixer replied.

Wendy turned sharply, frowning. "Why not?"

"Well…if more people became aware of how it was done, wouldn't that mean there was a greater chance people would play tug-of-war over my soul? Being in between people isn't exactly a state I would call _pleasant."_

"And you're okay with this?" Wendy motioned to Maria. "You're okay with being stuck?"

Sixer shrugged. "Maria is better for me than he was. You know this, you've seen how we interact."

The look on her face suggested that she didn't.

And then Sixer realized that this _wasn't_ the Wendy he and Maria had been seeing on and off all year. This was her _counterpart._

The one from _his_ dimension, who had survived Weirdmageddon if only because of what Cipher had done.

"How is it that being with _her_ is better?" Wendy asked in a demanding tone. "How is it that trading that damned triangle for her is—"

"She sees me as an equal."

Wendy blinked, mouth partially open. Sixer's quiet voice had cut through hers before she could get any louder.

"He considered us as less than nothing."

Crescent, Star, and Pine stirred in their beds. Pine opened his eyes first.

"Wendy?" Pine's voice was still heavy with sleep.

Wendy turned sharply, looking at each of them in turn with wide eyes. Then she left the room quickly without another word.

Crescent grunted and pushed himself up on an elbow. "What was that about?"

"…that was _our_ Wendy." Sixer looked at Crescent, then elaborated, "Our dimension's Wendy."

Crescent blinked, then took the statement in stride. "Really? Would'a thought she'd've slapped one of us over everythin' or somethin'."

Sixer shook his head a little, then looked at the doorway Wendy had disappeared through. "She was asking about…." He motioned to his chest. "She was asking about how Maria had rescued me."

"Did you tell her?"

"I don't know if spreading that information is very…wise."

Crescent grunted, then pulled his elbow out from under him and pushed himself into a sitting position. Star and Pine watched from their beds. "Probably not. I dunno about you, but bein' willpowerless isn't exactly somethin' I'd like to have happen often."

Sixer smiled a little at Crescent's response, but the smile faded a moment later. "No, it's…not pleasant."

"No shit. So where's my breakfast?"

Wendy wasn't the only one who came by to visit.

Within an hour of Wendy's exit, there was a knock at the door, shortly followed by it opening a crack.

"M-Mr. Pines?"

Sixer looked up from his book at the hesitant voice and caught sight of a pair of young girls standing in the doorway. One was built like a wrestler, and the other was much skinnier by comparison.

"Is Mabel awake?" the larger asked while the smaller looked at Sixer with wide eyes.

Sixer frowned, but then put two and two together. He glanced over at Star, saw that she was peering from under her blanket with wide eyes, then back at the two girls. "She is, but if you want to hug her, I would suggest asking, first. And be mindful of her wings when you do."

The bigger girl gave a thumbs-up, then pushed the other girl into the room. "Come on, it's fine, see? He's not gonna do what your books say he's gonna do."

"He is _kitsune_!" the other argued, her voice carrying an accent. "They hunger for human flesh!"

"The only thing he hungers for is _bacon,"_ Crescent replied, catching the two girls by surprise. He leaned on one elbow and looked the two girls over. "Ya look kinda familiar…Candy and Grenda, right?"

The larger of the two girls – Grenda – nodded as Star slowly pulled the blanket off her head. "Yeah. Good to see you're okay, Mr. Pines."

"Same to you. Everyone doing okay?"

Grenda made a so-so motion while Candy turned her gaze around the room and locked eyes with Star, who almost shrank back under the blankets.

"Mabel?" Candy asked. She reached forward, then paused when Star's wings fluttered a little.

Grenda noticed and looked over at the two of them. Her eyes went wide. "Whoa, Mabel! Those wings are really pretty up close!"

"…thanks," Star said quietly. She tangled her fingers in the blanket, looking between her hands and the two girls. "You…you're _really_ okay?"

"Physically," Candy replied.

"Yeah. I mean, we're probably gonna be absolutely traumatized for the rest of our lives, but we should be okay!" Grenda agreed.

Star hesitated for a second, then lunged forward and grabbed the two girls in a hug, burying her head in their shoulders. Immediately, she started weeping, which caused the two girls to exchange looks and return the hug as best they could.

Sixer watched them, then noticed something move out of the corner of his eye and looked over at the doorway.

Two Gideons peered in from the edge of the doorway, watching with concerned expressions. But they didn't step into the room, and instead disappeared after a long moment.

Over the course of the rest of the day, Sixer and his family received visitors from the town – both from their dimension and not. Seeing the doubles wasn't confusing or off-putting for them, while it was clearly something that some were still adjusting to.

Eventually, those visitors pulled back and left Sixer and his family alone for the evening.

 **Time Break**

Three days after he'd first woken up, Sixer was taking advantage of a quiet morning by reading. His counterparts and Pine's counterparts had compiled a list of books for him to read while he was recovering his energy, and he was currently working his way through a mystery novel that looked like it had been read through multiple times over.

Something shifted in the room, causing Sixer's ear to flick towards the source. He frowned. It seemed the sound was coming from near the window.

Someone groaned. "Gah, I feel like I got hit by a Quintessan. Where's the Energon when you need it?"

Sixer's ears went straight up. He knew that voice.

He turned around so that he could see the figure who had spoken.

Maria had a hand over her face, elbow up in the air as she covered her eyes with her fingers. After a moment, she froze. "Wait a second."

Maria proceeded to try and get up into a sitting position, only to wince and drop back onto the cot. "Okay, can't move yet, something doesn't feel—" She cut herself off when she saw Sixer looking at her. She blinked in surprise. "Sixer?"

Sixer couldn't keep back the smile even if he'd had the willpower he was missing. "Good morning, Maria."

Maria stared at him. "What happened to you? Are you—"

"I'm fine. I'm just…a little tired."

Maria blinked, and her shoulders relaxed. Her expression didn't relax with her, however – instead, she looked concerned. "What happened?" She looked out the window, then back at Sixer. "I can see Weirdmageddon isn't happening, but—"

"He's gone." Sixer could feel a triumphant thrum in his chest at the memory of blasting Cipher with everything he had. "Cipher won't be causing any trouble anymore."

Maria blinked slowly at that, and her eyes widened. "Like, _gone_ gone? You mean it?"

Sixer nodded.

It took Maria a moment to process his words. Her eyes remained wide as she looked around the room at Sixer and his three sleeping family members. Then a grin crossed her face, slowly at first, but then it suddenly became so wide that it probably would have split her face. "HA! Yes! Thank Primus and the Axolotl and whoever else was backing us up!" She threw her fists into the air above her head. "Ding dong the demon's dead! Oh, I wish I'd been awake to see the look on his face when he got clobbered!"

Sixer laughed at Maria's words, feeling just as elated as she was. She was awake and all right, and just as relieved as he was that Cipher was dead and gone for good.

He heard the sound of feet hitting the hardwood floor outside the room, and Vash burst in as Crescent, Star, and Pine stirred, awoken by Maria's own awakening.

"You're awake!" Vash slammed into Maria, grabbing her tightly in a hug. "You're okay!"

Maria hissed. "Not completely I'm not! My chest still feels like it's on fire!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Vash pulled back, giving a shaky smile. "I'm just glad you're awake."

"About time you woke up," Crescent muttered, sitting up. "Do you know how worried everyone else's been over you?"

"Everyone else?" Maria responded. "Are you saying you weren't?"

Crescent waved a hand. "I knew you were gonna wake up eventually; I just didn't know when."

Sixer rolled his eyes at his brother, who sent him a stinkeye while Vash distracted Maria with helping her sit up.

"Well, I'm awake now." Maria leaned against the window behind her as a certain yellow electric mouse walked into the room on his hind legs. "And I want details! What's happened while I've been out? Is everyone doing okay after Weirdmageddon? Who dealt the final blow to that eldritch monster?"

"Maria, slow down!" Pika came over and jumped onto the cot and sat next to Maria. "We've got time to explain things; don't worry about missing anything."

"Pika!" Maria sounded absolutely delighted at seeing the other leader of her guild. "It's been a while since I've last seen you! How's everybody been doing?"

"Pretty good." Pika climbed up onto Maria's lap and put his paws on his sides, mimicking the hands-on-hips stance that humans sometimes did. "I'm glad you called us in when you did. That guy was a nightmare." He frowned. "Did you know that Chaos can turn into some kind of water monster if he's exposed to enough of that Chaos Energy?"

"He did _what?!"_ Maria's jaw dropped. "No way! I thought he couldn't do that after shifting over into his Mewtwo form when Mobius merged with the past!" She scratched her head, frowning. "I guess Weirdmageddon let him unlock that or something…is he okay now?"

Maria knew about that giant form? Sixer considered the thought. Well, it was likely she would know about it when the others didn't.

"If you mean back to normal, yeah." Pika frowned. "How'd you even know about that monster form in the first place, anyway?"

"Chaos' 'perfect' form is something that Sonic fought a while back," Maria replied. "Tails, Knuckles, and Amy were there, too. He was a big, watery ball of anger then, though – not so much now." She grinned. "Boy oh boy, Cipher couldn't have been expecting him to do _that._ "

Sonic? Tails? Those names weren't familiar in the least. Sixer frowned; he'd have to ask Maria about them later.

"Those two aliens with him certainly didn't," Star spoke up. "One of them got bit in half."

Maria whistled. "Man, I knew Chaos could be bloodthirsty, but that's a bit much." She winced a little and rubbed her chest. "Did someone put my chest plate on wrong? It feels like something doesn't fit right."

Pika rubbed the back of his head. "We were in a hurry, and I don't know you as well anymore."

"Oh! No no no, it's okay, it's just – it feels like there's dents in it or something. I'll get Fiddleford to look at it later." Maria sighed and winced a little. _"Man,_ though, I wish I'd been awake to see you clobber him! Who got the final blow in?"

Crescent raised his hand, causing Maria's grin to falter into a confused expression. "Crushed him under my foot after Star beat him down with a couple meteors, Pine tied him down and Sixer set fire to 'im."

Maria's eyes widened as she sucked in a breath sharply. "You guys…you took him on yourselves?"

That certainly was the question of the day, wasn't it?

And, thinking back…

"While the Pokémon were able to assist us in defeating the Dark Arms and giving us a little time…in the end, we did destroy him ourselves," Sixer said carefully.

The debt had been paid. With Cipher's life.

Maria's went wide with quiet amazement. "Man, I wish I'd been awake to see that. He must have suffered some _spectacular_ end. Who knew that what he did to you guys turned out to be his weakness, huh?" She grinned. "Talk about irony."

Irony indeed.

Sixer smiled. "I am quite relieved that it worked in our favor."

They didn't have many visitors over the course of the day. Pika stayed near Maria, sitting on the windowsill above her head as she lay on the cot. He and the pink, spherical Pokémon – a Chansey, apparently – were the only two Pokémon who had stayed behind originally, and now only the little mouse had stayed behind.

He was still there an hour later when Fiddleford arrived with the necessary equipment to repair Maria's dented armor. Mainly, a number of hammers.

And he brought someone along that Sixer had not been expecting to see.

Fiddleford's counterpart – the Fiddleford that _Sixer_ knew from his now-destroyed dimension – looked around at Sixer and his family with an uneasy expression.

Sixer's tails shifted under the covers. While he didn't want to startle him in the same way he had accidentally startled Wendy, that didn't mean he was eager to leap into conversation to assuage any fears his old friend might have.

"Glad ta see ya up!" Fiddleford walked over to Maria. "I was worried I was gonna lose a patient!"

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure I'm your only patient." She sounded amused.

"Exactly! Hadron, if you wanna help, you'd better get over here an' stop gawkin' like a kid in a machine shop."

"O-oh! Right." Hadron turned his gaze away from Star and moved closer to Maria and Fiddleford. "So, yer some kinda android?"

Maria shifted to her armor with a smirk. Sixer turned in bed just in time to see Hadron's jaw drop at the sight.

The dented chest plate, however, made Sixer wince.

Fiddleford whistled. "Yup, that looks pretty bad. But I'll get that fixed up in a jiffy! If you'll just…help me get this off here…."

Sixer watched as Fiddleford and Hadron worked the chest plate off Maria. As soon as it finally popped off, Maria let out a sigh of relief.

Her core also made itself known, casting a small area in a soft blue aura.

Her _soul._

Fiddleford sat on the floor and set to his work with his hammers, knocking the dents out with care. Hadron watched with wide eyes as Fiddleford worked, and then his gaze moved to Maria.

"That little thing is what keeps ya goin'?" Hadron approached Maria and reached out a hand towards her core.

Maria gave him a narrow-eyed stare while Sixer's ears flicked nervously. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't come any closer to touching that. The last fellow had his forearm crystalized. My core could probably get all of you and be out for another week at most."

Hadron pulled back quickly.

Sixer adjusted how he was sitting so that he could face Hadron a little better. "Her core is more than just a power source."

Hadron turned sharply and stared at Sixer with wide eyes. "Oh! St-Stanford!"

Sixer blinked when he saw the glint of _something_ in Hadron's eyes, but it was quickly covered up.

"I, ah…" Hadron fidgeted. "I wasn' expectin' ya ta be coherent."

Sixer's ears pulled back at the word, and the look on his face made Hadron backpedal.

"I-I mean, you were in a terrible state before! I…I woulda thought…" Hadron trailed off, looking uncertain.

Sixer placed his arm along the top of the headboard of his bed and leaned his head against it. "I _was,_ for some time. Some days I feel it takes more energy to…" He motioned between himself and Hadron. "—to do _this_ than on other days."

Hadron noticed the chair next to Sixer's bed and sat down. Pine and Star exchanged looks on the other side of the room while Crescent watched with a guarded expression. "An'…how're ya feelin' today?"

Sixer watched Fiddleford inspect his work on Maria's chest plate. "I was out cold for a day and kept in bed for the last three. After everything that happened in Weirdmageddon…a few days of quiet feels like all I'm capable of for the moment."

Sixer saw Maria send him a look while Hadron tilted his head in thought.

"You're…diff'rent, from what I was expectin'," Hadron said. "Yer better, but yer not quite the you I remember."

Sixer sighed, a long, drawn-out sound through his nose. "I doubt I ever will be, to be honest."

It was a sad thought, but a truthful one. Sixer saw the sad agreement on Maria's face as Fiddleford put the fixed plate of armor back into place.

Hadron looked saddened. "Well, I…I guess that means we don't got anythin' ta worry about, since you folks are in good hands here. Now all we gotta do is figure out where we're gonna go."

Sixer frowned. "What are you talking about? I was under the impression you were staying in the mansion."

"Oh, we – we are, it's just…" Hadron took his hat off and started to pick at the brim with his fingers. "Well, I don' think we can all stay in there forever. Not when this isn't our dimension an' all that. Ya think if…if this dimension's okay, then our home is too?"

Sixer set his jaw a little. "I don't—"

"I can check." Maria pushed herself up onto one elbow with some difficulty.

"Maria—"

"I'm not going to make a portal _now."_ Maria frowned up at Pika, who was still sitting on the windowsill. "I'm going to wait a few more days to get more energy back, but I _can_ at least _check_ to see if your dimension is still around." She held out a hand. "Just – just gimme your hand, Hadron. I should be able to use your general aura and track it back to your dimension."

Hadron blinked. "Y-you can?"

"I've seen her do it," Sixer spoke up. He remembered his counterpart from the next town over, who Maria had sent home.

If she had been able to do it then, he couldn't see why she couldn't now.

Hadron looked between them, then hesitantly held out his hand.

Maria took it in her other one, hand already glowing with a low-level blue light—

A loud snap of electricity caused Maria's hand to jump away from Hadron, both of them yelping in pain.

Sixer grabbed the headboard of his bed. He felt he might have to leap out of it if Maria was harmed. "Maria! Are—"

"I'm fine!" Maria shook her hand out, hissing curses between her teeth. "I was _not_ expecting that. _Ow."_

"What happened?" Pika frowned, concerned.

"I think what I _was_ expecting."

Upon hearing that, Sixer collapsed back into his bed with a rather mournful sigh.

Maria shot him a sad look. "I'm sorry, but…it looks like Cipher dug his fingers in too deep. I'm not registering any dimension for you guys. At all."

Hadron stared between Maria and his hand with a wide-eyed, shocked expression. Then he sighed and dropped his hand. "It's…all right, I suppose. We'll just hafta find another way of livin, now that we're sharin' a town with doubles of ourselves."

"You'd better believe you're sharing," Crescent replied. "No way are you leaving Gravity Falls when you lived here before."

"He's kinda got a point," Pine spoke up. Star nodded in agreement.

"But where?" Hadron looked helpless. "We can't live up in that mansion forever."

"You just leave that up to me, double'o mine!" Fiddleford replied with a grin. "We'll work somethin' out, I guarantee it!"


	34. The End of Summer

**A story two years in the making...finally complete! After all this time, I can finally give you the chapter I finished writing back in July of 2018!**

 **But this story isn't done yet - souls still need to be repaired, and the next story will cover Maria's search for that solution. I'm going to start posting it in March, just so I can have a bit of a break and you guys can get a breather before leaping into the next one!**

 **Chapter 34 – The End of Summer**

It was another week before Sixer, his family, and Maria were able to have enough energy to go a full day without needing to take a nap at any point. It was during this time that they discovered that the Shack had gotten…bigger, than it had originally been.

"So, the Shacks basically merged into one Shack when Weirdmageddon stopped?" Maria leaned against the doorway leading into the living room and looked around at the larger space. "Huh. I guess that's _one_ way of saying this change is permanent."

"Yeah." Dipper nodded. He was sitting on the couch with Sixer, watching a commercial for something weird that Sixer didn't see any sense in getting. Owls were _not_ a problem; why would you need a trowel for them?

"Most of the house isn't surrounded in unicorn hair anymore, either," Dipper continued. "Probably because Mizar's brother and grunkles are demons. The barrier would affect them the same way that it affected Cipher."

Sixer glanced over. "Won't that leave us open in case another Cipher decides to come to this dimension?"

Dipper opened his mouth, paused, then frowned. "Yeah, that could be a pretty big problem…but I think having Alcor and Grunkle Journal in the house will help to keep him away? I mean, it's not like they don't have protective spells of their own. And Grunkle Journal took over the study space in one of the basement levels – he's working on setting up a library down there – so I don't think we're gonna be without options."

"Well, if no one else is planning on using that study, all the power to him," Maria commented. "Any idea what's gonna be done with that cave of a basement?"

"I think—"

Dipper was cut off when the TV started blaring music that sounded like the start of a news report.

 _"This is Shandra Jimenez, reporting live from the town square,"_ said the woman on the screen. _"It's been a week since the unfortunate comeback of the strangeness of a certain previous summer, and everyone seems to have adjusted back to how things are supposed to be here in Gravity Falls. It has been confirmed that school will be starting a week later than last year in order to give people time to enjoy an actual_ calm _ending to summer for once."_

Seeing as Star and Pine were going to be heading _into_ the high school starting this year, an extra week off didn't sound like a bad idea to Sixer. He nodded in agreement with the reporter.

 _"In other news, the local tourist trap has announced another 'We Survived the Summer' party. The Never Mind All That Act is going to be temporarily lifted on August 31st so that we can hear how exactly our invasion problem was taken care of in full detail. Hopefully the Pines won't be against such a thing, as they were the ones who spearheaded the effort."_ Shandra paused. _"Current proprietor of the Mystery Shack, Soos Ramirez, has said that invites are free admission, although Stanley Pines will be running refreshments with Mabel and Dipper Pines. They have a set price for food and drink, so if Stanley decides to take prices a step higher, do not be afraid to just take the food and run."_

That particular comment made Sixer smile a little. "Stanley's not going to like that."

"No, he doesn't," Dipper confirmed. "But it's the only thing we can use to get him to keep him from making the party more expensive for everyone than it's going to be."

Maria snorted. "If he doesn't find other ways behind your back."

Sixer nodded and was about to voice his agreement to that when someone else spoke up on the TV.

 _"Excuse me, miss!"_

Sixer glanced at the TV and stiffened.

There was a counterpart in portal garb approaching Shandra.

 _"Oh! Mr. Pines, I wasn't expecting to see you in town today, what with settling back into the Shack,"_ Shandra greeted.

 _"Actually, I just arrived here,"_ the Ford on the screen corrected. _"One Stanford Pines sent a few messages out that contain some information that none of us were expecting. Is he currently still in town?"_

 _"Yes, he's up 618 Gopher Road. If I may ask, what information did he give that you found unexpect—Oh, he's running down the street."_ Shandra watched the man go, frowning. _"Well, it looks as though the Pines may be getting a visitor before the party tonight!"_

Sixer swallowed audibly. "How much of a time delay is there between the town square and here?"

"Seconds, I think." Dipper frowned. "For how far away we are from the rest of civilization, they're really good at updating their broadcasting technology regularly."

"Well, someone better get the door when he gets here, and I don't think it should be Sixer." Maria looked over at Sixer.

Sixer shook his head in agreement. "I'm likely to have a weapon pointed in my face."

"I'll get go tell everyone else he's coming." Dipper slipped off the couch. "Maria, you can get the door, right?"

"If need be, yeah." Maria held out one hand, and there was a bright flash of light as a red, wooden staff with a phoenix at the top materialized. "Thank Primus for built-in crutches."

Dipper nodded, then ran out of the living room and disappeared into the next one, where most of the family had been watching a card game between Stanleys and Mabels.

At the same time, a loud knocking went off at the front door.

Sixer stiffened. "Do you think it's—"

"Likely." Maria sighed and started across the living room, her staff making heavy thuds against the floor as she leaned on it for support. "All right, buddy, let's see what we've got here…."

She opened the door as Sixer's tails started twitching nervously. He felt like leaping off the couch and disappearing upstairs so that he wouldn't be sitting out in plain view.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to do so, because the counterpart they had seen on the TV screen was now standing in the open doorway.

"Excuse me, I'm—" The Ford cut himself off when he saw Sixer sitting stiffly on the couch. "Ah. There he is." He started to push past Maria, only to stop when Maria remained where she was.

One advantage to her being made of metal – she made an excellent roadblock.

"Excuse _me,"_ Maria replied. "What are your intentions with Sixer?"

The visitor frowned down at Maria. "And who, exactly, is asking?"

"Maria Carlsdale, the World Jumper Fire Storm, that's who." Maria raised an eyebrow.

Sixer looked between her and his counterpart as she pulled out her full title. From his perspective, his counterpart didn't seem the least bit fazed.

"I was warned you might be nearby, but I wasn't expecting the turning point to be this young," the counterpart commented.

Sixer took that moment to step in. "She's technically four hundred years older than I am; I wouldn't discount her experience just because she looks like she hasn't lived for as long as she says."

Sixer's ears pulled back as his counterpart's gaze moved from Maria to him.

"So the reports are true – you _are_ acting differently compared to previous interactions." The counterpart frowned. "What about Cipher?"

"Out of the picture." Crescent stepped into the room, followed by Star, Pine, and Stanford. "You missed us killing him by – what, a week?"

Stanford made a "so-so" motion and shrugged. "Weirdmageddon makes time…tricky. So it might have been that long ago."

"He's _dead?"_ the counterpart repeated, startled. "That monster is –" He cut himself off and shook his head. "I can't believe that. It sounds far too good to be true."

"I saw it happen," Stanford replied. "And we have several other witnesses here who were involved in and watched him be completely and utterly destroyed."

"You're certain it wasn't an illusion," the counterpart said seriously.

"We knocked ourselves out from the energy drain that killing him _took,"_ Sixer spoke up. "He may have forced transformations on us, but that doesn't mean that any one of us can alter reality."

The counterpart looked like he was about to protest when Maria tapped him on the shoulder with her staff to get his attention.

"The only thing Sixer can do, as far as I'm aware, is transform into a giant fox and manipulate fire," Maria said. "Mirages can _seem_ like reality depending on how _good_ they are, but I haven't gotten to working on those with Sixer yet."

The counterpart stared. "What are you talking about?"

"She's showing me the finer points of using my abilities," Sixer explained. "I…didn't get a chance to experiment with them before."

He hoped his tone of voice hinted enough at the truth of the matter, and judging from how his counterpart's face shifted, that seemed to help.

"I see. Then there is more to what happened than we initially suspected." The counterpart frowned. "Is there anything that has been done to the end of _not_ leaving them as puppets?"

"I'm planning on getting on that as soon as school starts," Maria replied. She looked over at Sixer. "There's nothing in this dimension that might be able to help, and at least one dimension I know of has nothing that'll be able to help."

Sixer's ears drooped a little. He knew which dimension she was referring to.

Considering that the three beings of the soul hadn't been able to assist in returning his willpower to him…did she know of other dimensions that might be useful?

The counterpart's brow furrowed. "The damage has to do with his soul, correct? That's what was meant to be understood, according to the reports that Stanford sent us." He looked over at Stanford.

Stanford nodded. "That's the most amount of detail I put in concerning their situation, yes. I felt putting any _more_ detail might put a strain on them none of us would want."

"And why is that?"

"Would _you_ want the information about how to pull them away from us wandering around the multiverse between the other members of the council?" Stanford's eyes narrowed.

Sixer winced. No, that would _not_ be wise, as he had already said to one of his counterparts before Cipher's invasion.

He knew how Maria was handling the situation. He _didn't_ know what it would be like to be in the hands of a counterpart.

"But wouldn't it be wiser if we kept them with people we knew and trusted?" the counterpart argued.

"Are you insinuating that Stanford doesn't trust _Stanley_ to keep an eye on Sixer's brother?" Maria asked coldly.

The temperature of the room immediately dropped ten degrees, and the counterpart's eyes widened. "I- I didn't—"

"If you want to question our methods, perhaps it would be best if you left us to what we know _works,_ after having been with them for the last year," Stanford said coldly. "Otherwise, I will have to have a _talk_ with the council of Fords, and I'm bringing Maria _with_ me, because she has _experience_ in these matters. Am I understood?"

The counterpart shut his mouth and nodded.

"Good. Now is there anything else you want to discuss?"

"Just…one thing." The counterpart held up his hands while the group stared at him. "How did four different dimensions become merged together in this manner?"

"Blame a couple aliens who made a deal with the dead demon," Maria replied dryly. "I don't know how they did it _this_ time, but I know how they did it previous times and I'm _not_ about to spread that information around."

Sixer knew by Maria's tone of voice that she meant it, and his counterpart seemed to pick up on that to, because he gave a nod and a quick farewell before retreating off the porch and out of sight.

Maria closed the door behind him and sighed, leaning against it. "Something tells me we're not done with this council."

"Not for a while, no," Stanford agreed.

 **Time Break**

Eventually, the end of the month arrived, and the entire town turned out for another massive Pines birthday bash for the Dippers and Mabels in the now three-story Mystery Shack. Crescent spent most of those hours regaling how Cipher had died – with some embellishments in order to make everything sound even more incredible.

Sixer could have gone in and participated in the retelling himself, but the crowd of people _happy_ with them felt a little off-putting, even after having lived among them for a year.

He wasn't used to people giving him wide grins and not having them as gritted teeth. Not yet. So he stayed off to the side and watched as music played late into the day and people sang happy birthday to the kids.

A ghostly presence floated over and stopped next to him. "You're not joining in?"

"No, I—" Sixer did a double-take when he saw who was next to him. "Ma? I've been waiting for you to stop by since Shermie said you wanted to see me."

"Well, I'd rather not wander inta a house that has a weird energy all over it. That damn portal you built in the basement has left its mark on the place, let me tell you."

Sixer winced a little. Their dimension wasn't a part of this one, but she did likely have a point, so he didn't argue.

"So, where's that Maria girl?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then looked around. "She's…over there." He pointed with his towards Maria, who was leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing, talking to a Wendy in red plaid. The Wendy from his dimension.

He remembered waking up and startling her. He hoped that she didn't have anything against him for not telling her how Maria had rescued him.

"Well, then let's get over there. I want to meet this little savior of yours." Ma promptly started moving across the lawn and towards Maria.

Sixer moved quickly after her in order to keep up, moving around the people who were dancing on the lawn or talking in groups. Some sent him curious looks as he passed or tried to stop him and ask questions, but he just apologized and moved forward to keep up with the ghost of his mother.

Eventually, he caught up with her just as his version of Wendy left Maria with a wave. The redhead passed by him and gave him a slight nod in greeting.

Sixer was a little surprised to find that there wasn't any animosity there in her gaze.

"You wanted to see me?" Maria didn't look all that startled by Ma's appearance. Sixer wondered if she had interacted with ghosts before. "Why?"

"I wanted ta meet the person who was responsible fer all this." Ma motioned to the party that was happening around the giant lodge of a Shack.

Maria blinked a couple times, confused.

"If it weren't fer you, we'd probably keep spiralin' down inta that mess until someone else came along an' just blasted everyone ta bits," Ma said matter-of-factly.

"I'm sure someone else would have—"

"Well, that 'someone else' had a _long_ time ta try until you came along an' took care a' things. An' you took care a' it. So there."

Maria looked a bit startled by how Ma was addressing this. Sixer couldn't help but give her a sympathetic look. This is just how Ma was; there wasn't anything else that could be done about that.

"So, now that you have my son, I should hope that you treat him with all the proper care that comes with watching after a man who's seen more than he ever should."

Sixer had not been expecting that. "M-Ma!"

"Well, it's not like you can completely take care a' yerself." Ma looked at him. "Not with yer soul as wounded as it is. I should hope that yer gonna be whole at some point in the future so that you can settle down properly." She gave Maria a pointed look.

"The plan is to look into solutions for that as soon as school starts up," Maria promised. "I have friends I can ask for help."

"Good." Ma gave a definitive nod. "It's always good ta have someone you can rely on." She sent Sixer a pointed look.

He ducked his head. "I—"

"I don' need excuses from you, I know what you were goin' through. But you know better now, I should think."

Sixer nodded. He glanced over at Maria, who was watching with an expression that was…almost amusement.

"Well, now that you're settled an' both my boys are safe, I should trust that I can trust _you_ to keep an' eye on them an' not let them get inta too much trouble." Ma looked at Maria with a serious look.

Maria straightened up. "Ma'am, as much as trouble attracts my attention, I'll do my best to make sure it stays away from them."

"That's all I ask from someone with as busy a schedule as you." Ma smirked. "Now, you two tell Shermie not ta worry about me, all right?"

Sixer blinked in confusion. "Ma, what do you—"

And then he noticed it.

Little globules of light were starting to drift up off Ma's ghostly form, fading out of sight as they floated upwards.

Oh, no.

"Ma—"

"I've pushed myself ta last in the world of the livin' fer as long as I could," Ma said. "I wanted ta make sure you were outta the dark part of the woods. An' now that ya are, I can finally rest in peace."

She put her hands on either side of Sixer's face; he leaned into her touch. Ma felt as warm as she had been when she was living.

That brought back a whirlwind of memories, and before Sixer was even aware of it himself, he was hugging Ma tightly, burying his face in her shoulder.

"I'll miss you," he said as her form slowly became translucent.

He felt her fingers just barely brush through his hair, settling behind his ears. "An' I'll miss you. Stay safe, ya hear? I don' wanna hafta come down if ya ever get in trouble again."

Sixer gave a hollow chuckle. "I think I'll be okay."

Maria had protected him for a year, giving him a chance to recover from Cipher's torment. He could feel that there was still scarring there, but…

Maria was kind. Maria _knew_ some of what he had gone through.

She had helped him this far. And he knew that she would continue to stand by his side in order to make sure he was all right.

The thought warmed his heart.

Ma chuckled. "Good-bye, Stanford. I'll be seein' ya."

And just like that, Sixer was hugging empty air, the last of the little glowing spheres disappearing into the sky.

He knew he was crying, but he didn't care if anyone saw. He just stood and watched until he couldn't see her any more.

Out of the darkest part of the woods, she'd said.

Cipher was dead. He wasn't coming back.

But they still had a fair distance to go before he could call himself recovered.

And for that, he was going to need a whole soul.

 **See you in March with the next installment!**


End file.
